The US can build the world's most sophisticated AI models, but it can't get a basic electrical transformer delivered in under two years. Rob L'Heureux lays out the problem in a detailed analysis: transformers, the physical kind that step voltage up and down across the electrical grid, are in critically short supply. Demand is surging from AI data centers and electric vehicles, but supply hasn't kept up. Prices have roughly quadrupled since the 2000s, and lead times stretch years. The bottleneck is structural, not technological.