The Infrastructure Behind Intelligence: Why AI's Next Bottleneck Isn't Talent—It's Power

Rich Washburn
Aug 2
2 min read

In the second quarter of 2025, the world’s leading AI companies poured over $100 billion into data centers, compute infrastructure, and power systems. That’s not a typo. It’s a new normal.

What’s unfolding isn’t just a generational tech wave—it’s a capital supercycle. And this one has metal behind it.

At Eliakim Capital, we’re not watching this from the sidelines. We’re directly involved—brokering and advising on the infrastructure moves that are shaping this race: high-performance chips, GPU clusters, industrial turbines, hybrid power systems, and the capital strategies to finance them.

Chips Are the New Bottleneck

Supply remains tight. Premium GPUs are spoken for before they’re even built. And in this market, "good enough" silicon has found a new premium category—one that performs adequately at scale, within a smart systems architecture.

We're helping operators and allocators secure the hardware they need to stay competitive, often blending top-tier performance with intelligent deployment strategies.

The Real Constraint: Power

The less-discussed story is where all this compute will live—and how it’ll run. AI infrastructure now rivals small cities in power draw. Regions across the U.S. are nearing grid saturation. In response, we're seeing accelerated interest in:

Natural gas turbines
On-site microgrids
Battery-integrated systems
Advanced cooling tech

For firms building at scale, these aren’t side considerations—they’re table stakes.

Infrastructure as a Depreciating Asset

Railroads, highways, telecom fiber—those were durable investments. AI data centers aren’t. A $10M rack of GPUs could be underperforming 12 months from now.

That changes how infrastructure should be financed. The smartest players aren’t just buying hardware—they’re architecting capital stacks that give them leverage, liquidity, and upgrade agility.

We’re structuring those deals.

What Eliakim Brings to the Table

We specialize in connecting capital, infrastructure, and technology at scale. Our focus areas:

Compute Hardware – GPUs, AI accelerators, system integration
Power Systems – Turbines, backup energy, and load-balancing tech
Capital Strategy – Infrastructure financing and asset-light expansion models
Market Insight – Intelligence from inside the procurement and investment cycles

If you're building the future of intelligence—or investing in those who are—we can help you secure what matters: hardware, power, and smart structure.