Alphabet’s Google is courting an $80 billion equity raise to fund a wave of AI‑driven data centers. Tech giants have pledged record capex, yet construction lags behind schedule and regulatory hurdles. Supply‑chain backlogs, permitting fights and scarce power supplies are throttling progress, leaving many announced projects still on the drawing board. The mismatch raises doubts about how quickly fresh cash can translate into capacity.

JP Morgan’s latest analysis shows more than 60 % of data‑center capacity slated for 2027 isn’t under construction, with an additional 7 % delayed. That gap has widened as permitting stalls and grid constraints bite harder across major U.S. hubs. The slowdown threatens to curb the AI boom that fuels revenue streams such as Google Cloud’s $20 billion first‑quarter haul.

To sidestep the power bottleneck, Google is buying its own generation assets and developing load‑shifting software that routes workloads to sites with available electricity. Analysts say this could let the company connect new farms to the grid faster than rivals in key markets, preserving the value of its massive war chest for years and protecting shareholder returns as capex climbs toward $670 billion this year.