Chapter 118 The Electricity Dilemma

Mu Xin paused for a moment, his mind racing, but he didn't concede out loud.

"My equipment has already been ordered. I placed the order with Siemens last month and even paid the deposit."

Ramaswamy glanced at him, the half-smile on his lips deepening slightly.

"Mr. Mu, you aren't a child anymore. Both you and I know that placing an order doesn't guarantee you'll receive the goods, especially in this industry."

He pulled his phone from his inner suit pocket, tapped a few times, and turned the screen toward Mu Xin.

This time it wasn't a photo, but a screenshot of an email.

The sender was a vice president at Siemens Energy North America, and the recipient was a name Mu Xin didn't recognize, but he understood the content of the email.

"...Due to the ongoing global supply chain strain and raw material shortages, delivery times for all new orders will be reassessed based on specific models and specifications."

"The current average delivery cycle for high-power transformers is 128 to 144 weeks. Generator set delivery cycles depend on the model, with some large gas turbines having delivery cycles extended to 5 to 7 years..."

Mu Xin's brow furrowed.

Ramaswamy put his phone away, leaned back into the sofa, and crossed his legs.

"Mr. Mu, do you know what Americans are most lacking right now? It's not money; it's time."

Mu Xin sat there without speaking, but his mind was already racing. Transformers, generators—these were the core equipment for expanding the power plant's capacity.

Without these things, his new substation would just be an empty shell; he wouldn't even be able to transmit electricity.

"I've looked into your project," Ramaswamy said, his voice low. "The equipment you ordered, according to the current schedule, won't be delivered for at least three years."

"Three years. Your hotel is set to open next summer. Can you afford to wait three years?"

Mu Xin picked up the coffee on the table and took a slow sip.

"Mr. Ramaswamy, you've said so much—are you trying to tell me my project is finished?"

Ramaswamy looked at him and chuckled.

"It's not finished; it's stuck. Stuck in a place no one expected." He leaned forward slightly.

"Do you know why the delivery cycle for transformers across the U.S. has become three to five years?"

"It's not because the manufacturers don't want to produce them; it's because they simply can't."

"The factories are the same, the workers are the same, but the order volume..."

"Mr. Mu, take a guess: how many times have transformer orders across the U.S. multiplied in the past two years?"

Mu Xin didn't speak. He didn't need to guess; he had already calculated it in his head: the explosive growth of AI data centers.

Combined with the need for a comprehensive upgrade of the aging power grid, plus the stimulus from the previous president's infrastructure bill, these three layers of demand piled together meant that American power equipment manufacturers simply couldn't keep up.

"Two years ago, the delivery cycle for a large transformer was six to eight months," Ramaswamy continued.

"Now it's 128 to 144 weeks—two and a half to three years."

"Generator sets are even more extreme: five to seven years. Mr. Mu, do you know what that means?"

"It means everyone is waiting in line." Mu Xin sighed.

"Exactly. And who's at the front of the line? Those internet giants."

"Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta—they started placing orders two years ago, paying in full upfront, sparing no cost to secure production slots."

"A single order from them is hundreds of transformers and dozens of generator sets. The factory production lines are packed, and their capacity for the next three to five years has been completely devoured by them."

Ramaswamy paused, a hint of schadenfreude appearing in his eyes as he looked at Mu Xin.

"Mr. Mu, you think you're quite wealthy. A 300-million-dollar investment is indeed considered a large project in a place like Oxford Town."

"But do you know how much Amazon invested in power infrastructure last year? Fifty billion dollars."

"Not budget, but actual money spent. Google spent forty billion, Microsoft sixty billion."

"Your 300 million dollars, compared to these giants' 150 billion dollars, doesn't even count as a rounding error."

"So you mean I'm competing with internet giants for equipment?" Mu Xin asked.

"Not competing," Ramaswamy shook his head. "You're waiting in line behind them, and that line is only going to get longer."

"However, Mr. Mu, I've heard you've always been quite resourceful. You intimidated PJM with that island power plant proposal."

"You smashed open the doors for the ODNR approval with a 120-million-dollar investment, and you donated 20 million for infrastructure in two counties. Anyone else would have found those things impossible to do."

"So I'm wondering if you have some way to handle this time as well."

"I can throw money at it." Mu Xin's voice was calm.

"Money can't solve this problem," Ramaswamy shook his head. "Everyone who can build a power plant now is wealthy. What everyone lacks isn't money; it's time."

"Factory capacity is fixed. Even if you doubled the price of transformers across the U.S. today, they still couldn't deliver something that takes three years to produce in just one year."

"Because producing transformers isn't like writing code. Lithography machines can run twenty-four hours a day, but the core processes for transformers can't be rushed."

He paused, as if remembering something, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Mr. Mu, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that if you can't buy it in the U.S., can you import it from China?"

Mu Xin didn't speak, but his eyes betrayed him.

Ramaswamy looked at him and let out a soft laugh.

"Mr. Mu, what do you think? China is currently the world's largest producer of power equipment, with delivery cycles much shorter than the U.S., and the prices are cheaper, too."

"If you could import transformers and generator sets directly from China, wouldn't your construction schedule problem be solved?"

"Why wouldn't it work?" Mu Xin retorted.

"For two reasons." Ramaswamy held up two fingers. "First, the U.S. government's tariffs."

"In 2025, the U.S. imposed a 25% Section 301 tariff on transformers imported from China."

"Some manufacturers are hit with additional anti-dumping duties, making the comprehensive tax rate ridiculously high. If you buy a transformer from China, you'd have to pay an extra quarter just in tariffs."

"Money is not the issue," Mu Xin said.

"I know," Ramaswamy nodded. "That's why the second reason is the real obstacle."

He looked at Mu Xin, his expression becoming a bit more serious.

"The second reason is that the U.S. government won't let you import from China."

"This isn't a matter of tariffs; it's a matter of national security."

"The Department of Commerce launched a security investigation into Chinese power equipment last year, and this trend will only get tighter this year."

"Think about it: a Chinese international student building a power plant in Ohio, then importing transformers from China."

"Mr. Mu, what do you think those people in Congress would think if they saw that?"

Mu Xin fell silent.

"They would say this is China infiltrating the U.S. power grid infrastructure," Ramaswamy said, his voice lowering.

"Your project would be investigated by Congress, exposed by the media, and targeted by the FBI. By then, you wouldn't even have a chance to explain."

"And it's not just transformers," Ramaswamy continued. "Photovoltaics, wind power, energy storage, nuclear power—the U.S. government is tightening restrictions on all equipment related to electricity."

"Just think, even wind turbine imports are being investigated. Why would your transformers be an exception?"

Mu Xin picked up his coffee cup, trying to calm his mind.

"So that path is closed too," Mu Xin said.

"Not closed—it's completely impassable," Ramaswamy leaned back in his chair. "Photovoltaics won't work, wind power won't work, and thermal power won't work either."

"As for nuclear power, Mr. Mu, do you think the U.S. government would let a Chinese international student like you touch nuclear energy? Don't even think about it."

"The U.S. government quietly stopped export licenses for Westinghouse Electric two months ago."

"Your project can't touch nuclear energy, but your personal background is already enough to make any import approval involving electricity abnormally complicated."

Mu Xin picked up the cup of cappuccino that had gone completely cold and took another sip. He was thinking about where he had gotten stuck. PJM was handled, the State Government was handled, the approvals for the two counties were handled.

He was even trying to figure out how to use Professor Keller's organoid platform to hedge against Governor DeWine's Bexorg issue. He thought he had cleared all the obstacles and only had to focus on rushing the construction schedule.

But now Ramaswamy was telling him that his biggest obstacle wasn't approvals, funding, or politics—it was time.

Not his own time, but the time of the entire U.S. power supply chain.

Those transformers, those generator sets, those switchgears, those circuit breakers—they were all waiting in the order pools of the internet giants, and it would be three to five years before it was his turn.

He picked up his phone, opened the search bar, his finger hovering on the screen for two seconds, and then he typed a line: "large power transformer lead time 2025".

The page loaded for a few seconds, and the search results that popped up on the screen made his finger pause slightly.

Mu Xin stared at the bolded numbers, feeling his blood pressure rising.

128 to 144 weeks—two and a half to three years.

He searched for generator sets again, and the results were even worse; for some models of gas turbines, the delivery cycle had stretched to five to seven years.

He already felt that one year was too long, but at a five-year cycle, by the time his hotel opened, the equipment wouldn't even have started production.

Mu Xin placed his phone face down on the table and rubbed his temples.

He wanted to curse, but he couldn't; he wanted to shift the blame, but he didn't know who to shift it to.

Ramaswamy sat opposite him, watching him, saying nothing.

The data he found was exactly the same as what Ramaswamy had said.

Over the past three years, the demand for large transformers in the U.S. had grown by nearly 120%, and the demand for distribution transformers had grown by 40%, but U.S. domestic manufacturing capacity simply couldn't keep up.

Decades of manufacturing hollowing-out had left the U.S. with only a few factories capable of producing large transformers, and the capacity of these few factories had long been pre-booked by internet giants.

Even if he placed an order now, the fastest he could get the goods would be in three years.

But the hotel was set to open next summer, and the power capacity expansion had to be completed before next May.

In other words, counting from today, he had less than ten months at most.

Damn it...

Mu Xin cursed in his heart.

"Does your coming here today mean you can help me solve this problem?" Mu Xin asked, looking at him.