AI Just Put a $5 Million-a-Day Price Tag on Its Biggest Bottleneck

AI data center tenants are now demanding penalties above $5 million a day when developers miss deadlines to deliver power and facilities, up from roughly $1 million earlier this year. SoftBank-backed SB Energy is building a 10-gigawatt Ohio campus for OpenAI; a full-year delay would cost 640 days of base rent, and the site relies on a 9.2-gigawatt gas plant SB Energy will not own or run. In September, SB Energy postponed a planned $5 billion IPO amid pushback on its $50 billion valuation; it had $139 million in first-half revenue and no open data centers. Oracle sent a force majeure notice on its New Mexico campus, which could delay payments if the site misses its 2028 start.