New Delhi, July 25 -- In the 1980s, Japan's semiconductor industry overtook U.S. producers, to the surprise of many. Japan's advantage wasn't technological; it was the cost of capital. Backed by low-rate keiretsu lending and patient, government-aligned banks, Japanese firms could finance multibillion-dollar fabrication plants on terms that their U.S. competitors couldn't match. Within a decade, Japan controlled more than half of the global semiconductor market.

The U.S. now faces a similar funding bind, this time against China and over artificial intelligence rather than semiconductors.

AI leadership will depend on abundant power, transmission, and data-center capacity, all of which require long-dated, large-ticket financing that is bec...