Oracle invokes force majeure for power infrastructure work on Project Jupiter, its AI data center in New Mexico, citing regulatory and environmental hurdles.

Oracle issued a force majeure notice on September 24 tied to Project Jupiter, a multibillion-dollar AI data center campus under construction in southern New Mexico, as key pieces of the development's planned power infrastructure remain in separate regulatory processes. STACK Infrastructure and BorderPlex Digital Assets are developing the campus near Santa Teresa. The power plan includes a 2,462-MW Bloom Energy fuel-cell microgrid awaiting a state construction permit and a natural-gas pipeline proposed to supply it.

Oracle sent the notice to Blue Owl Capital, owner of STACK Infrastructure. The notice preserves Oracle's contractual protections if the campus does not come online in 2028 as planned, according to Bloomberg. "Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule," Oracle Vice President Michael Egbert said in a written statement. "Force majeure notices are common on developments of this scale and are often used to preserve contractual rights among project partners. They do not, by themselves, establish a project delay or change delivery expectations."

Oracle's latest workforce figures show more than 3,600 construction workers helping build the campus, including over 1,000 New Mexico residents. More than 900 workers joined in August, bringing total labor to approximately 2.8 million hours worked, Egbert said.

Bloom Energy says Oracle remains committed to its contract for 2.4 GW of natural-gas fuel-cell capacity and that Bloom expects to execute the project on Oracle's planned timeline. Bloom declined to answer questions about the microgrid's current construction status, permitting, commissioning schedule or when pipeline gas must be available.

The proposed 2,462-MW fuel-cell microgrid would be located 3.6 miles south of Santa Teresa. Yucca Growth Infrastructure LLC applied in April for New Mexico approval to construct the facility, which would use Bloom Energy solid-oxide fuel cells. The draft permit would allow as many as 2,275 fuel-cell clusters to provide all base-load and backup power. Yucca's April application identified the microgrid as not yet constructed and said it did not then have a construction permit, with construction anticipated to begin upon permit issuance and completion expected in November 2029. However, the filing separately lists anticipated startup as approximately October 2026, without explaining the conflicting dates.

New Mexico Environment Department staff cleared a major technical hurdle in June when an air-dispersion modeling review found that operation of the proposed microgrid would neither cause nor contribute to exceedances of applicable air-quality standards and concluded the permit could be issued based on that analysis. The department has until November 23 to decide whether to issue the permit.

At a July scheduling hearing, Yucca attorney Jennifer Bradfute said her client stood to lose $325 million per month beginning in November and urged the state to accelerate the proceeding. The microgrid application calls for maximum natural-gas consumption of approximately 375 million standard cubic feet per day and annual use of about 136.8 billion standard cubic feet.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is reviewing Transwestern Pipeline Company's Green Chile Project, proposed to supply the microgrid with natural gas. FERC says the project would deliver up to 400,000 dekatherms per day from the existing El Paso Natural Gas system to meet natural-gas demand for power generation at the AI data center campus. The pipeline would span 17.77 miles of 24-inch-diameter natural-gas transmission pipeline with metering facilities and related infrastructure in Doña Ana County, New Mexico.

Transwestern originally sought to have the pipeline in service in August but moved its anticipated in-service date to February 2027 in an August FERC filing. FERC has not yet authorized construction. Its staff completed an environmental assessment in September and concluded that approving the project would not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. The Bureau of Land Management approved the pipeline's crossing of approximately 16 miles of federal land with a 50-foot-wide permanent right-of-way, recording an April 27 finding of no significant impact and a May 1 decision.

The pipeline also encountered a separate right-of-way dispute involving New Mexico state trust land. Energy Transfer subsidiaries sought rights-of-way for approximately 2,000 feet and 3,200 feet of the pipeline and a business lease for the Green Chili Meter Station, proposed to connect the lateral to the existing El Paso Natural Gas line. The State Land Office canceled those applications in March. State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard denied Energy Transfer's request for reconsideration on July 14, saying the proposed rights-of-way and lease were not in the best interests of the state land trust.

Energy Transfer says it continues to work through permitting requirements for the pipeline but declined to answer questions about construction status, critical-path approvals, current in-service date or gas availability for microgrid commissioning. STACK says it, Blue Owl and Oracle remain "fully aligned" and that the force-majeure notice does not change their financial commitments, but did not answer construction or critical-path questions.

Oracle maintains that Project Jupiter's 2028 delivery schedule has not changed. The New Mexico environmental agency faces a November 23 deadline on the microgrid construction permit, while Transwestern's reported pipeline in-service target is February 2027.