Compute, energy and tariffs bite
Reports say the AI surge is stressing compute and energy supply—providers are seeing rationing and rising prices that change how teams must plan capacity. At the same time, CEOs expect tariffs to persist and governments are rolling out refund schemes, all of which are tightening the economics of large‑scale AI operations. ( )
The artificial intelligence boom is running into a basic limit: there are not enough chips, data-center slots, and megawatts to go around. (enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes.com) The immediate squeeze is on compute, the processing power used to train models and answer prompts. The Economic Times, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported on April 14 that providers are rationing access, raising prices, and warning customers about delays as demand for “agentic” tools climbs. (enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes.com, wsj.com) That demand is spilling into reliability. The same report said Anthropic has had outages since mid-February, and Anthropic’s public status page shows multiple April incidents, including elevated errors on requests to Claude models on April 10. (enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes.com, status.claude.com) The second constraint is electricity. The Financial Times reported in December that new data centers are expected to need 44 gigawatts of additional power by 2028, while capacity coming online in the next three years may cover only about 25 gigawatts, leaving a gap of 19 gigawatts. (ft.com) That gap is showing up in corporate planning. In PwC’s 2026 Global CEO Survey, published January 19, only 30% of chief executives said they were confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months, down from 38% in 2025, and PwC said tariffs were among the pressures weighing on investment decisions. (pwc.com) PwC surveyed 4,454 chief executives across 95 countries and territories. The firm also found that only 12% said artificial intelligence had delivered both cost and revenue benefits, even as 42% said they worried they were not moving fast enough on technology change. (pwc.com) Tariffs are now adding a second bill on top of the infrastructure bill. Reuters reported on April 14 that the Trump administration plans to launch a refund system on April 20 for $166 billion in tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down in February, after ruling the president had exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. (usnews.com) U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the new Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, or CAPE, will start with electronic refunds and issue one consolidated payment, with interest when applicable. As of April 9, 56,497 importers had completed the steps for electronic refunds covering $127 billion, according to the court filing cited by Reuters. (usnews.com) The refund system does not erase the uncertainty. Customs said Phase 1 on April 20 will cover certain unliquidated entries and some entries within 80 days of liquidation, while more complicated cases will be pushed to later phases, and Supply Chain Dive reported refunds will generally take 60 to 90 days after a declaration is accepted. (thompsonhinesmartrade.com, supplychaindive.com) For companies building large artificial intelligence systems in April 2026, the constraint is no longer just model quality. It is whether they can secure chips, power, and a stable cost base before the next price increase or policy change lands. (enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes.com, pwc.com, usnews.com, ft.com)
