New Delhi, Nov. 8 -- The AI industry sells a future of almost limitless computing power. Its creditors still expect payment on a schedule.

The post-election debate over the AI trade has focused on whether political resistance will slow America's data-center expansion. The harder financial question is who carries the cost when a facility opens late and customer payments arrive later still.

For a company that has not committed its money, slower construction may offer breathing room. For one that has already borrowed, ordered equipment and signed binding agreements, the same delay may offer very little relief. The building can wait. The obligations may not.

Fortune's November 5 reporting identified debt-heavy specialist cloud providers as...