The most sought-after corporate tenant on earth signed a lease in Taipei in February. Six months later, it still has no substation.

Nvidia took space in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park. It needs power. Taipei City Government wants the substation underground — that takes about 9 years. Taipower wants it above ground — about 5. Five coordination meetings have not settled the argument. There is a temporary option, a single transformer worth 60 megawatts, connectable roughly 20 months after the permits come through. The permits are what's stuck.

So here is this week's question. Taiwan is earning more than at any point in its history, from a boom it supplies with chips, servers, racks and cooling systems. And it is sending almost all of that money somewhere else. The comfortable explanation is that this is simply what wealthy creditor countries do. The uncomfortable one is sitting in a planning office in Taipei, waiting on a decision about a substation.