Oracle Issues Force Majeure Notice for New Mexico Stargate Data Center
Oracle has issued a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter, the Stargate data center campus located in New Mexico, Bloomberg first reported on Thursday. The notice is not an intent to withdraw as the anchor tenant, but rather allows payments to be deferred if the campus misses its 2028 launch target. The campus is designed to carry 2.45 gigawatts and relies on Bloom Energy's gas fuel cells; the Energy Transfer pipeline supplying it has been delayed by nearly six months to February 1, 2027, due to repeated permit denials, and the air quality permit for the fuel cell system is still under review, with the state environmental department required to decide by November 23. Oracle said the project remains on schedule, and Blue Owl Capital said the notice does not change its financial commitment to the multi-year project.
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Oracle has issued a force majeure notice to the Stargate data center in New Mexico, giving readers insight into the real-world obstacles in energy and permitting facing AI data center construction.
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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 get in the way. Oracle is not seeking to exit as the campus’s main tenant, according to Bloomberg’s sources. Instead, the notice would allow the company to delay payments should the facility miss its 2028 target to come online.
The notice also comes as AI data center construction faces growing scrutiny nationally, and as developers take on steep costs to build capacity for customers like OpenAI.
Oracle maintains that it does not expect a delay. “Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule,” Oracle said in a statement to CNBC . “We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward.”
Blue Owl Capital, whose unit received the notice, said in its own statement to CNBC that “this notice does not change the financial commitments to this multi-year project.”
Neither Oracle nor Blue Owl immediately responded to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
Still, the notice follows a string of setbacks at the site, many of them 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, which makes a reliable gas supply central to its timeline.
An Energy Transfer pipeline intended to deliver gas to the site has also been delayed nearly six months, to February 1, 2027, after regulators repeatedly denied permits for the line. In August, Bloomberg reported that 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. The state’s environment department faces 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, according to Bloomberg.