Add to that the significant parts and components shortage as well as the growing revolt by both nearby residents living near proposed data center sites as well as state and local governments.
OpenAI told the Financial Times, “Our historic data center build-out is on schedule and we will accelerate from here. In partnership with Oracle, SB Energy and a broader ecosystem of partners, we are delivering rapid progress in Abilene, Shackelford County and Milam County in Texas,” while Oracle said, “Each data center we’re developing for OpenAI is moving forward on time, and construction is proceeding according to plan.”
Two construction executives working on OpenAI-linked projects said there were not enough specialist workers, from electricians to pipe fitters, to meet demand across the build-out as companies race to construct clusters of increasingly large and complex facilities.
Data center construction is facing growing headwinds from all quarters. Umm the high hardware demands of AI’s data centers has resulted in a significant shortage of not only GPUs but also memory and storage. Hard drive makers are sold out through the end of this year and into next year and memories going for hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Power is another issue. GPUs especially our power hungry and the demands of data centers have gone through the roof. With the current grid unable to support the demands, data center providers are looking to provide their own power, namely through modular nuclear data centers. Nuclear power has come back into vogue after being on the outs for so many years.
Then there’s the revolt of both citizens and governments. What started out as individual groups in cities and states opposing data centers has now moved on to the state of Maine putting a pause on all data center construction through next year, and 11 other states are also considering it a similar ban.
