Tariff war throws building of data centers into disarray

Enterprise IT leaders are facing a double-whammy of uncertainties complicating their data center building decisions: The ever-changing realities of genAI strategies, and the back-and-forth nature of the current tariff wars pushed by the United States.

“This is obviously a fluid situation. The stated goal of the [US] administration is to bring more development into the US,” said Forrester Senior Analyst Alvin Nguyen. “But with some of these activities, there is the potential that it draws some manufacturing and other capabilities of the data center away from the US.”

Nguyen, who advises enterprises on data center strategies, said the tariffs are adding complexity and uncertainty into the already volatile genAI data center strategies.

“Right now, there’s too much variability. With all of the tariffs, this may be the thing that slows down AI,” Nguyen said. “And if you slow down AI, that will slow down the data centers.”