Jet engine shortages threaten AI data center expansion as wait times stretch into 2030 — the rush to power AI buildout continues

The greatest threat to AI datacenter expansion in 2026 might not be compute, land, or capital, but jet engines. Faced with multi-year delays to secure grid connections, data center developers have been racing to bolt ex-airliner turbine cores onto mobile generator trailers. These so-called aeroderivative gas turbines, long used in military and offshore energy, are now being ordered in bulk to deliver fast-start bridging power for hyperscale AI clusters, which face a deepening energy crunch. But the…