6.5 GW Under Construction, 30% Slippage: The Real Cost of Texas's Datacenter Sprint

Texas now commands two-thirds of new North American datacenter capacity, with 6.5 GW under construction and 22 GW in the pipeline, but the buildout can't outrun its constraints: six projects are already delayed, and the industry faces 30-50% slippage on 2026 deliveries. Grid headroom, transmission bottlenecks, and permitting timelines are the binding variables, not demand. That infrastructure gap is drawing federal attention too, with the bipartisan GRID Act proposing to force any new facility over 20 MW entirely off-grid, carrying $1 million daily fines for noncompliance. If that bill gains traction while slippage rates hold, the next 18 months of Texas siting and procurement decisions get considerably more expensive.