US AI and data center expansion faces significant delays due to severe shortages of transformers and switchgear. Nearly 50% of data centers planned for this year face potential delay or cancellation.
Lead times for critical electrical hardware now stretch up to five years. Domestic manufacturing shortfalls force American tech companies to rely heavily on high-power transformer imports from China.
This growing reliance on Chinese hardware persists despite significant national security concerns. The bottleneck threatens the nation’s broader AI infrastructure ambitions across the technology sector.