This article first appeared on GuruFocus .
Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives said a potential slowdown in U.S. data center construction could favor major cloud providers with operating capacity, according to a Monday research note.
He cited midterm election results and Texas governor Gina Hinojosa's approach to data center development, where SpaceX ( NASDAQ:SPCX ) and Tesla ( NASDAQ:TSLA ) have large operations.
Ives estimated that 10% to 30% of planned U.S. data centers may not be built over the next 18 months under a "Blue Wave" scenario. He said firms with available gigawatts and GPUs could become more valuable. The note named Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon ( NASDAQ:AMZN ), Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), and in some cases Oracle (ORCL) as potential beneficiaries.
Overall capital spending is still expected to reach $3 trillion to $4 trillion over the next few years, with Big Tech capex above $1 trillion next year, Ives said. A slower buildout could reduce capital raising by about 25% over the next year.
Ives added that the AI revolution will continue, though at a slower rate, and political leaders will need to balance data center concerns with global AI competition.
