CAIS Summit Panel on AI Buildout
TL;DR
At a forum in Beverly Hills, the discussion focused on obstacles to expanding AI data centers, including rising energy costs and weakening public support for construction. Blackstone’s Mike Forman said infrastructure supply constraints are worsening, particularly around power: utilities that once could connect projects within six to twelve months may now quote waits of up to seven years, require investments as high as $1 billion, and offer less certainty.
Nauti's Take
For small teams, the practical consequence is an infrastructure check before scaling: validate GPU capacity, power costs, and fallback providers for any model or workflow that could become compute-intensive. The figures come from Bloomberg’s account of a panel, so treat them as a signal rather than a market forecast and verify connection timelines, upgrade costs, and local grid constraints for your own site.
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