Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary warned that the U.S. is letting China beat America in data center construction, as permit approvals take years while China builds new facilities every month.
Permitting Crisis Threatens Competition
“I’m deeply involved in the data-center sector, and here’s the truth: we’re letting China beat us because it takes years just to get permits approved,” O’Leary wrote on X.
“Meanwhile, they build a data center every month.”
According to O'Leary, the United States needs to cut red tape and accelerate construction to stay competitive in AI, energy, and cloud infrastructure.
Red tape refers to unnecessary or overly complex rules and administrative procedures that increase costs and limit opportunities for businesses.
“We can’t win if we move this slowly,” O'Leary wrote.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang also echoed O'Leary's concerns in a discussion with Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) President John Hamre, noting that building a U.S. data center, from groundbreaking to AI supercomputer, takes about three years, while China can construct a hospital in a weekend—demonstrating its extraordinary infrastructure speed and efficiency.
US Power Under Pressure
Another significant hurdle for rapid data‑center development is energy demand.
According to an August post by The Kobeissi Letter on X, U.S. data centers now consume a record 5% of total electricity demand.
This recent surge in data center development has already intensified the strain on the US's stretched power grids.
As of November, there are 4,165 data centers in the United States, the highest number of any country worldwide, compared with 381 in China, according to Statista.
Meanwhile, China is accelerating its data-center expansion by cutting energy costs up to 50% through subsidies, boosting domestic chip use and growth.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
