Wall Street Is Growing Skeptical of the Data Center Boom

Wall Street is turning more cautious about the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom. On Sept. 21, The New York Times reported that several companies tied to the data center industry have delayed their initial public offerings amid growing public backlash against the sector's energy-hungry facilities.

SB Energy pushes its listing to late October

The clearest example is SB Energy, the power and data center developer backed by SoftBank. The company published its financial results on Sept. 1, but it is not expected to go public before mid- to late October, later than its original schedule, the newspaper reported. It has sought a valuation of $50 billion or more and has proposed an Ohio campus that would rank among the world's largest data center projects.

According to CNBC's coverage of the filing, SB Energy is backed by SoftBank, OpenAI and Nvidia, with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman an early personal investor. The prospectus says the business is "substantially dependent" on OpenAI as both a tenant and an equity investor. The company posted a net loss of about $3.2 billion in the first half of 2026 against roughly $139 million in revenue, mostly from its legacy energy operations, and none of its data centers are in service yet. Reuters reported on Sept. 15 that it plans to sell up to $500 million in shares to Japanese investors as part of the offering.

Holtec, Oracle and Nscale add to the caution

SB Energy is not alone. Nuclear supplier Holtec shelved a planned listing of up to $900 million on Sept. 16, with its chief executive telling the Financial Times that the market had taken a "sharp turn against the AI data centre economy". The company said it may try again within three to six months. Reuters, citing the FT, reported that about $18 billion in loans tied to an Oracle-leased data center in New Mexico were quoted at 89 to 91 cents on the dollar after banks struggled to sell the debt on. Fortune reported that Nscale, another AI data center provider, filed for an IPO at a reported $35 billion valuation while carrying a $1 billion half-year net loss.

Why investors are rethinking the build-out

Two pressures are converging. Local opposition has moved from planning meetings into the financing chain: research group Data Center Watch found that about 45 American projects worth $68 billion were blocked or delayed between April and June, with opposition groups active in 49 states, Bloomberg reported. At the same time, investors are asking harder questions about how the expansion is funded, because a large share of the spending is debt-financed while borrowing costs remain elevated.

Public listings and bond sales have been a central source of capital for projects that will not generate revenue for years. A narrower IPO window raises the cost of that money, and leaves each new campus more reliant on a small group of deep-pocketed backers.