Datacenters hit a wall

Major AI infrastructure projects across the U.S. and globally are stalling due to local opposition and regulatory hurdles, despite support from Trump and tech leaders like NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.

Texas halts 50 gigawatts of projects

Governor Greg Abbott ordered a halt to major datacenter projects pending an audit by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas into energy use, water impact, and community effects. The freeze could delay $8 billion in fees.

“Simply put, Texans must come first.”

New York imposes one-year moratorium

New York State banned datacenter development for sites over 50 megawatts following community pushback. Moratoriums have been proposed in multiple other states.

Regulatory scrutiny spreads nationwide

Regulatory scrutiny of datacenters expanded across 49 states in the second quarter of 2026. Local opposition disrupted 45 projects worth $68 billion in the same period.

Oracle invokes force majeure

Oracle cited problems beyond its control to potentially delay payments on the Jupiter Project in New Mexico, a key site in the $500 billion Stargate constellation announced in January 2025.

Jupiter faces pipeline denial

The New Mexico State Land Office repeatedly denied the Jupiter datacenter's right-of-way for a gas pipeline needed to fuel the facility. The project was supposed to come online in 2028.

Stargate scales back in Texas

OpenAI and Oracle cancelled plans to expand their Abilene, Texas Stargate datacenter from 1.2 gigawatts to 2 gigawatts. Microsoft then committed to deploy 700 megawatts there instead.

International Stargate projects stall

Stargate datacenters face delays globally. Geopolitical tensions threaten a project in the UAE, while OpenAI halted an 8,000-GPU facility in the UK in April 2026 citing power costs and regulatory hurdles.

Canada option faces Trump tariffs

OpenAI may turn to Canada for datacenters, but tariffs imposed by the Trump administration threaten buildouts there as well.

AI labs call for slowdown

Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX have suggested slowing AI development to prevent the technology from escaping human control. Critics question whether this is genuine safety concern or a cover for product delays.

IPO ambitions fuel skepticism

Given Anthropic's and OpenAI's plans to go public, some view their safety rhetoric as an attempt to mask product lags and lack of progress as a noble effort to protect society.

OpenAI's $750 billion bet

OpenAI committed to spend about $750 billion on datacenter capacity by 2030. Datacenter delays could force the company to forgo planned progress on AI models.

Trump calls opposition a conspiracy

Trump has called resistance to datacenter buildouts a sick conspiracy and maintains his strength as president is sufficient to guard against AI problems. The issue will be tested in upcoming midterm elections.

“Simply put, Texans must come first.”

Uncontrollable slowdown looms

The datacenter delays may force an AI slowdown that the industry hasn't planned for and can't control. Upcoming elections will pit competing voices against each other with credibility gaps on all sides.