GlobalData: Grid Delays Push Data Center Construction Timelines Beyond Two Years
GlobalData reports that the average wait time from announcement to groundbreaking for new data centers has risen to over two years, up from 18 months, primarily due to grid connection bottlenecks.
According to a report by Data Center Knowledge citing market research firm GlobalData, grid access difficulties have emerged as the primary obstacle to expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure. For data center projects that broke ground between the third quarter of 2025 and the third quarter of 2026, the average wait time from announcement to actual construction start exceeded two years. This contrasts sharply with approximately 18 months for projects initiated between early 2020 and mid-2025.
Martina Raveni, a senior analyst at GlobalData’s Strategic Intelligence team, identified the grid as the "hardest to fix" structural bottleneck, noting that while a data center takes one to three years to build, new grid infrastructure requires five to 15 years. In major European data center hubs, developers may face waits of up to a decade for a connection. Additionally, shortages of skilled labor, such as electricians, have pushed some delivery schedules back by around a year.
Community opposition also plays a significant role. Ya-Han Brownlee-Chen, Vice President of Data Center Strategy for DP World Americas, stated that local concerns regarding electricity bills, water consumption, and noise are impacting permitting and construction schedules. This tension complicates site selection and makes construction timelines harder to predict.
While these physical constraints are clear, opinions differ on whether they have already limited AI development capabilities. Luis Fernandes, Senior Research Manager at IDC, argued that there is no hard evidence yet that compute capacity itself is a limitation, attributing rising computing costs more to material shortages, such as memory supplies for high-end GPUs. However, Fernandes acknowledged that the lack of grid connection halts entire projects, leading to stalled sites that continue to bleed cash, potentially resulting in project acquisitions or transfers in the future.