đ The AI gridlock
Plus: A mortgage market makeover?
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Elon Musk isnât buying it. He just broke ranks with the Trump administration, going after the presidentâs âbig, beautifulâ tax bill for growing the national debt.
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Fast fashion, slow approval. Shein is reportedly preparing to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange as its IPO launch stalls with Chinese regulators, a recurring theme.
Wattâs next?
When Microsoft scrapped an Ohio data center and Amazon reportedly reconsidered leases, analysts sounded the alarm on AI demand. But industry insiders say the real challenge isnât appetite â itâs infrastructure.
Hyperscalers are facing grid constraints, soaring land costs, and speculative real estate markets that have distorted perceptions. Power access, not demand, is the limiting factor. Data center insiders say 75% to 85% of future capacity through 2029 is already pre-leased to major tech companies such as Meta, Google, and Amazon â with over $300 billion in AI infrastructure spending projected this year alone.
Whatâs slowing growth is the electric grid. Many utilities are overwhelmed with requests for capacity they canât deliver, prompting massive wait times and steep deposits â up to $30 million â to secure future access. Some data centers are now requesting 500-plus megawatts per site, enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. And speculative land buying has only made matters worse.
Still, analysts expect AI-related demand to continue rising. Efficiency gains may help, but the shift toward energy-hungry inference workloads will further strain capacity. Until power supply catches up, growth in AI infrastructure will depend less on capital and more on kilowatts. Quartzâs Jackie Snow has more on why the AI market might have to grid and bear it.
Loan rangers could go private
President Donald Trump wants to show Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the door. Trump said he wants to end government control of the mortgage behemoths and take them public, marking a potential reversal of the post-2008 bailout that put them under federal conservatorship.
The pair is the scaffolding of Americaâs mortgage market, backing roughly 70% of U.S. loans. While they donât make home loans directly, they buy and bundle them into securities with a federal guarantee. That guarantee turned into a taxpayer rescue during the housing crash, and the âtemporaryâ federal conservatorship has lasted 16 years.
Now, Trump is eyeing a private-sector reboot â which isnât a new idea. Congress has flirted with the idea over the years. But housing experts warn the move could push up mortgage rates â or just take longer than Trumpâs term to finish. If successful, the move would cap an effort to shrink the governmentâs role in housing finance. But critics warn that reprivatization could raise mortgage costs and rattle a still-struggling housing market.
Still, Trump made one thing clear: If disaster strikes again, the governmentâs safety net isnât going anywhere. The guarantee stays â even if Fannie and Freddie donât. Quartzâs Joseph Zeballos-Roig has more on why a âtemporaryâ fix has lasted 16 years.