Oracle Sends Force Majeure Notice on $18B New Mexico Data Center
Oracle triggered a force majeure notice on its $18B New Mexico data center after power and permit delays, as grid capacity reshapes hyperscale site selection.
Oracle has triggered a force majeure notice on Project Jupiter, its $18 billion Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, citing delays in securing power for the 1,400-acre site. The notice, sent to developer Blue Owl’s Stack Infrastructure unit and first reported by Reuters on September 24, seeks to protect Oracle’s payment obligations if the campus does not come online as scheduled in 2028. Oracle disputes that the move signals an actual delay.
Why it matters
Power, not land or capital, is now the constraint that sets delivery dates for hyperscale campuses. Project Jupiter has run into a delayed natural-gas pipeline and legal challenges over water and air-quality permits, the kind of grid and permitting friction showing up across the national data center pipeline. Developers scouting new campuses now have to underwrite utility interconnection timelines as rigorously as they underwrite land and construction costs, because a site with cheap land and no firm power commitment can still slip years behind schedule.
The numbers
- $18 billion tied to the Project Jupiter campus
- 1,400 acres under development in New Mexico
- 2028 scheduled online date under the original lease
- Oracle shares fell more than 3% the day the notice became public
What’s next
Oracle says “Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule” and that force-majeure notices are “commonplace” in projects of this scale, used to preserve contractual rights rather than announce a delay. Blue Owl and Stack Infrastructure have not detailed a revised timeline. The unresolved gas-pipeline and permit disputes, not the lease itself, will determine whether the 2028 target holds, and whether hyperscale tenants start treating power delivery as the gating item in site selection nationally.