Oracle sends force majeure notice on its New Mexico Stargate data center

Oracle has sent a force majeure notice tied to Project Jupiter, the Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The move does not appear to be an exit. Instead, it gives Oracle room to delay payments if the site misses its planned 2028 online target.

That distinction matters. Force majeure clauses are common in energy and commodities deals, and they’re basically the contractual escape hatch for events a company says it can’t control. Oracle says it still expects the project to stay on schedule. “Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule,” the company told CNBC, adding that it is “fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward.” Blue Owl Capital, whose unit received the notice, said the filing does not change the project’s financial commitments.

But the campus has been fighting the physics of building giant AI infrastructure from the start. Project Jupiter is designed for 2.45 gigawatts and depends on gas-powered fuel cells from Bloom Energy, which makes a steady gas supply a core piece of the timeline. That supply line has been messy. An Energy Transfer pipeline meant to serve the site was pushed back nearly six months, to Feb. 1, 2027, after regulators repeatedly denied permits. Bloomberg also reported in August that the route had been changed after those denials.

There’s another permit still hanging over the project: the state environment department has until Nov. 23 to decide on an air quality permit for the fuel cell system. And the site is not just a construction project anymore. It has become a political target, drawing opposition from residents and environmental groups and landing in the middle of the midterm-election fight. Oracle has responded with a public outreach campaign in New Mexico, which is usually what happens when a data center gets too big to hide.