Reliable grid power availability has become one of the most critical factors influencing enterprise AI deployment decisions, according to Flexential’s 2026 State of AI Infrastructure Report: AI-Ready Isn't Infrastructure-Ready.
The report found that 89% of organizations now consider power availability a determining factor when deciding where to deploy AI workloads, while 55% identified electricity pricing as the most important consideration in regional infrastructure planning.
The findings reflect how infrastructure limitations — including power, networking, supply chains, and compute availability — are increasingly shaping enterprise AI strategies.
Flexential’s research highlights how energy access has evolved into a major operational challenge for organizations scaling AI infrastructure.
According to the report, enterprises increasingly face limitations related to power availability, networking capacity, trade policies, and compute resources, creating interconnected constraints that many organizations cannot solve independently.
Ryan Mallory, CEO of Flexential, said:
"Power determines what's possible with AI right now. If it isn't there to support compute, networking, and deployment timelines, nothing else matters."
Mallory added:
"Organizations that have the budget and talent are showing up with ambitious AI roadmaps and finding out that they can't get megawatts in the market they need. Where power is available, and who can deliver it, has become as important as any technology decision these companies are making."
The report found that 72% of respondents expressed moderate or extreme concern about electricity price volatility impacting AI operating costs.
The study also revealed growing concerns around network performance and latency as enterprises expand distributed AI architectures.
According to Flexential, 96% of organizations experienced network performance issues over the past 12 months, while excessive latency concerns rose sharply from 32% in 2024 to 71% in 2026.
The report noted that AI compute and AI data are increasingly being distributed across different environments. GPU deployment in public cloud environments increased from 30% in 2024 to 54% in 2026, while the percentage of organizations storing AI data in public clouds declined significantly.
This growing separation between compute and data environments is contributing to operational latency and performance bottlenecks across AI workloads.
Flexential’s findings suggest that infrastructure limitations have surpassed budget concerns as the primary obstacle to enterprise AI expansion.
When asked about the biggest barrier to scaling AI initiatives:
The report also found that organizations are adjusting procurement strategies in response to tariffs and supply chain disruptions:
Tom Bailey, Vice President of Energy at Flexential, said:
"Organizations used to be able to plan around power, networking, compute, and trade policy independently. Those days are over."
Bailey added:
"Today, a power shortage affects where you can deploy and your networking options, and when you layer on tariffs and procurement timelines, and you have to manage it all simultaneously, you're in a considerably different environment than you were a year ago."
The report also highlighted changing expectations around AI return on investment (ROI).
The percentage of organizations expecting measurable financial returns within one year dropped from 51% to 36%, while operational efficiency and cost reduction replaced revenue growth as the primary measures of AI success.
At the same time, enterprise confidence in AI adoption continues to rise:
As organizations continue scaling AI deployments, infrastructure readiness, energy access, sustainability planning, and supply chain resilience are expected to become increasingly important factors in enterprise technology strategy.
Flexential empowers the IT journey of the most complex businesses by offering customizable hybrid IT solutions designed for today's demanding high-density computing requirements. With colocation, cloud, interconnection, data protection, and professional services, the FlexAnywhere® Platform anchors our services in 40 data centers across 18 highly connected markets on a scalable 100Gbps+ private network backbone. Flexential solutions are strategically engineered to meet the most stringent challenges in security, compliance, and resiliency. Experience the power of IT flexibility and how we enable digital transformation at www.flexential.com
TechIntelPro empowers B2B technology decision-makers with the latest industry trends, deep insights, leadership perspectives and actionable intelligence to drive both organizational and professional milestones—and thrive on the tech pulse.