The Gray Space Crisis: Analyzing the Supply Chain Bottlenecks Delaying the AI Boom

The Datacenter Economist

19 Aug 2025 — 3 min read

The AI boom is fueling a multi-trillion-dollar data center construction frenzy. While the market is fixated on the supply of next-generation GPUs, a far more significant crisis is unfolding in the shadows. The development of massive AI campuses is being stalled not by a lack of chips, but by a critical shortage of the unglamorous but essential "gray space" infrastructure—the industrial-grade hardware needed to power and cool it all.

This article provides a data-driven analysis of the three most critical component bottlenecks: electrical switchgear, backup generators, and liquid cooling systems. We will quantify the extreme lead times, identify the key suppliers, and model the financial impact of these delays on multi-billion dollar projects.

(To access our full analysis of the component lead times and the strategic framework for de-risking your development pipeline, please subscribe to The Datacenter Economist.)

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The "Paper Risk" Paradox: Three Non-Obvious Ways to De-Risk Data Center Permitting

The PPA Playbook: How to Negotiate Power Agreements in a Seller's Market

The 2kW GPU: Is Your Colocation Provider Ready, or Quietly Becoming Obsolete?

Beyond Virginia: A Risk-Adjusted Ranking of the Top 5 Emerging Data Center Markets