AI infrastructure has been doing the heavy lifting for U.S. growth. Data-center spending — especially tied to AI — accounted for roughly 92% of total U.S. GDP growth in early 2025, making it one of the few areas still driving incremental investment as financial conditions tightened elsewhere.
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That’s why Oracle’s update matters. The company disclosed that some of the large data centers it is building for OpenAI have been pushed back to 2028 from 2027, citing labor and material constraints. While Oracle emphasized that its contractual commitments remain intact, the timing shift is meaningful. These projects were expected to support near-term capital spending, construction activity, and demand across chips, power equipment, networking, and industrial supply chains.
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Oracle is not alone. CoreWeave has also delayed portions of its buildout, and across the AI infrastructure ecosystem, timelines are stretching as financing costs rise and execution risks increase. Even modest delays can have outsized macro effects when they impact the largest source of private investment in the current cycle.

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