Elon Musk warned on August 29, 2026, that roughly 15 gigawatts of AI computing capacity scheduled for 2027 will likely sit idle because the physical infrastructure needed to power it will not be ready in time. High-voltage transformers carry lead times of 48 to 60 months, and grid interconnection queues in North America are notoriously backlogged. Analysts estimate US data center power demand could reach 66 GW by 2027. SpaceX, which went public in 2026, closed Q2 2026 with 1.4 GW of compute capacity and is targeting 20 GW by end of 2027, though Musk expects a more realistic delivery closer to 15 GW given the delays. The Colossus cluster in Memphis, operated under the xAI umbrella, is central to this buildout.
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