Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt warns AI race is slowing due to infrastructure gaps

The AI boom has a speed limit, and it’s not set by software. It’s set by concrete, copper wire, and electrical grids that take the better part of a decade to upgrade. That was the core message from Brookfield Corp. CEO Bruce Flatt during the firm’s annual Investor Day on September 17, where he told investors that the AI industry is decelerating because developers simply cannot build infrastructure fast enough to keep pace with demand. The bottleneck isn’t a lack of ambition or capital. It’s a lack of power. The $7 trillion problem Flatt’s framing was blunt: even if AI companies wanted to slow down voluntarily, physical constraints would force their hand regardless. He pointed to power shortages as the single most acute constraint facing the industry today. Brookfield estimates that realizing AI’s full potential will require more than $7 trillion in capital investment over the next decade. That figure spans data centers, power generation, networking, and compute infrastructure. US AI data center power requirements are expected to exceed 100 gigawatts within the next decade. Meanwhile, grid interconnection queues, the line companies must join to connect new facilities to the electric...