Cloud computing giant Oracle, which plans to lease a massive New Mexico data center campus called Project Jupiter, is preparing for the possibility that the site might not open on time.
It sent the project's developer, Blue Owl Capital-backed STACK Infrastructure, a force majeure notice, looking to delay payments if the campus misses its 2028 target, according to a Bloomberg report. These clauses are normally used to cover disruptions that are out of a company's control, though Bloomberg noted it's unclear whether this would let Oracle postpone payments.
Oracle plans to use the site to provide AI compute power to OpenAI as part of its Stargate project, revealed in early 2025 as a four-year, $500 billion investment in building out U.S.-based AI infrastructure.
But the campus has run into snags in getting power, in this case supplying natural gas to on-site fuel cells, to the site. New Mexico's State Land Office denied permission for part of a gas pipeline to cross state land in March, then refused to reconsider the order in July. The pipeline was expected to begin service this month, but its new target date has been pushed to February 2027.
On top of that, the fuel-cell system also needs an air-quality permit. A court temporarily paused the permit's hearing before the New Mexico Supreme Court lifted the pause last week, allowing the review to continue.
Despite all these apparent setbacks, Oracle says none of this has changed its opening timetable. "Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule," the company tweeted on Thursday.
The project's website estimates it will bring "$4.7 billion in long-term economic impact" and bring 7,000 construction jobs to New Mexico.
Oracle's stock (ORCL) dropped 5% on Thursday morning following the report. It is now down nearly 30% year-to-date.