Oracle cites force majeure over New Mexico data centre, Bloomberg reports

Oracle has sent a force majeure notice over Project Jupiter, a huge AI data centre being built in New Mexico, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The notice went to the project’s developer, a unit of investment firm Blue Owl Capital.

Companies usually cite force majeure to escape contract duties when events beyond their control get in the way.

According to Bloomberg, Oracle wants the right to delay payments if the campus fails to open in 2028 as planned, rather than to walk away as its main tenant.

Project Jupiter, in Doña Ana County near the US-Mexico border, is part of the Stargate programme to build computing power for OpenAI.

It could cost up to $165bn and would run on as much as 2.45GW of Bloom Energy fuel cells , which run on natural gas.

Getting that gas to the site has been the problem. The New Mexico State Land Office rejected rights-of-way for a supply pipeline in March. It did so again in July, when Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard cited emissions and the strain on water and other local resources.

Energy Transfer, which would build the 17.8-mile pipeline, has since rerouted it across federal land. It also pushed back the pipeline’s start date from 15 August to 1 February.

Oracle said as recently as August that the project remained on schedule, and the notice would give it cover if that changes.

The stakes reach well beyond one site. Stargate’s backers, including SoftBank, are raising record sums of debt to fund OpenAI’s computing plans, and any delay at Jupiter would push those plans back.