Supply shortages, not weak demand, are the primary bottleneck holding back AI data center construction, according to Nokia chief executive Justin Hotard. Speaking to CNBC, Hotard said the tech industry would build facilities 2x faster if it were not for shortages in memory chips and energy. He argued that current limitations prove the market is still in the early stages of a massive infrastructure buildout.

Nokia has repositioned itself to supply the networking hardware that connects chip racks inside data centers and links facilities across different regions. The shift has attracted investor confidence, pushing the company's stock up 130% over the past year.

The scale of the push continues to expand. AI infrastructure investments are projected to reach $10.3 trillion from 2025 to 2032, averaging 3.63% of annual U.S. gross domestic product. Companies are funding these projects through debt, joint ventures, and complex financial structures, betting that long-term demand for AI services will justify the costs.

Despite the heavy spending, industry leaders frequently debate whether expansion is outpacing actual usage. Concerns recently intensified after Anthropic researcher warnings about existential risks prompted CEO Dario Amodei to call for a slowdown in advanced model development. The announcement triggered a sharp sell-off in AI-related stocks last month.

"I don't think you can say in any manner we're overbuilding today because reality is that if we could build 2x faster, our customers could build 2x faster, they probably would," Hotard said. He emphasized that demand does not rely solely on new models from frontier labs. Even without a new release in the next three years, he argued, the industry could make tremendous progress simply by deploying the technology that already exists.