Oracle Invokes Force Majeure on an AI Data Center

Oracle has invoked force majeure on one of the largest data centers in the Stargate program, a rare signal of strain inside the AI infrastructure boom. The company sent the notice to the project's developer, a unit of Blue Owl Capital, over its 1,400-acre Project Jupiter campus in New Mexico, part of the roughly $400 billion build-out Oracle is running with OpenAI and SoftBank, TechCrunch reported.

Force majeure clauses let a party defer or escape obligations when events outside its control derail a project. Oracle is using it to put off payments should the 2.45-gigawatt site fail to come online in 2028 as planned.

The problem is power

Project Jupiter is designed to run on gas-powered fuel cells from Bloom Energy. The pipeline meant to feed them, built by Energy Transfer, has slipped by nearly six months to 1 February 2027 after New Mexico regulators repeatedly denied permits and the route had to change. The state's Supreme Court rejected emergency challenges on 17 September, which let construction resume, but the broader legal and permitting fights are not over.

Investors noticed. Oracle shares fell about 3 percent on the news, according to CNBC, and roughly $18 billion in loans tied to the project have been trading at distressed levels, below 90 cents on the dollar.

A crack, not a collapse

Oracle was quick to steady nerves. "Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule," the company said, adding that it stays "fully committed to New Mexico." The notice reads less as an exit than as a hedge, a way to cap its exposure if the power situation gets worse.

Still, the episode lands at a delicate moment. Analysts have spent months debating whether AI spending has run ahead of the revenue to justify it. A flagship campus tripping over gas permits and grid timelines is a reminder that the hard limits on this build-out may be physical rather than financial.