Oracle Sends Force Majeure Notice on New Mexico Stargate Data Center

Oracle has sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter, a Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, Bloomberg first reported Thursday. Force majeure clauses, common in energy and commodities contracts, excuse a party from contractual obligations when events outside its control interfere with performance.

According to Bloomberg's sources, Oracle is not seeking to exit its role as the campus's main tenant. Instead, the notice would give the company the option to delay payments should the facility miss its 2028 target to come online. The move comes as AI data center construction faces growing scrutiny nationally, with developers taking on steep costs to build capacity for customers like OpenAI.

In a statement to CNBC, Oracle said Project Jupiter remains on its planned schedule and that it is fully committed to New Mexico. Blue Owl Capital, whose unit received the notice, said in its own statement that the notice does not change the financial commitments tied to the multi-year project.

Energy supply setbacks

The notice follows a string of setbacks at the site, many tied to its energy supply. The campus, designed to handle 2.45 gigawatts, is meant to run on gas-powered fuel cells from Bloom Energy, making a reliable gas supply central to its timeline. An Energy Transfer pipeline intended to deliver gas to the site has been delayed nearly six months, to February 1, 2027, after regulators repeatedly denied permits for the line. In August, Bloomberg reported the pipeline's route had been changed following those rejections.

A separate air-quality permit for the fuel cell system that would power the campus is also pending, with the state's environment department facing a November 23 deadline to decide.

Project Jupiter is one of the flagship sites of Stargate, the AI infrastructure initiative Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank announced with President Donald Trump early in his second term. The campus has drawn opposition from residents and environmental groups and has become a political flashpoint ahead of the midterm elections. Oracle has responded with a public outreach campaign in the state aimed at winning over the project's critics.