Oracle cites force majeure on Project Jupiter data center in New Mexico due to construction delays; seeks payment deferrals if facility not operational by 2028.

Oracle has sent a force majeure notice to Blue Owl Capital, the developer of Project Jupiter, a massive AI data centre under construction in Doña Ana County, New Mexico near the US-Mexico border. Companies typically invoke force majeure to escape contract duties when unforeseen events beyond their control impede performance. In this case, Oracle seeks the right to delay payments if the campus fails to open in 2028 as planned, rather than to walk away as the project's main tenant.

Project Jupiter is part of the Stargate programme to build computing infrastructure for OpenAI. The facility is projected to cost up to $165 billion and will run on as much as 2.45 GW of Bloom Energy fuel cells powered by natural gas. Oracle has stated as recently as August that the project remained on schedule; the force majeure notice provides cover should circumstances change.

The primary obstacle has been securing natural gas supply to the site. The New Mexico State Land Office rejected pipeline rights-of-way in March and again in July, with Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard citing emissions concerns and strain on water and other local resources. Energy Transfer, which would build the 17.8-mile pipeline, has responded by rerouting it across federal land and pushing back the pipeline's start date from August 15 to February 1.

The stakes extend well beyond Project Jupiter itself. Stargate's backers, including SoftBank, are raising record levels of debt to fund OpenAI's computing plans. Any delay at Jupiter would necessarily push those plans back.