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Oracle Seeks Payment Relief if Stargate’s New Mexico Campus Is Delayed
Oracle sent Blue Owl’s Project Jupiter developer a force majeure notice tied to the Stargate data center under construction in New Mexico. Oracle says the campus remains on schedule, while the notice could let it defer rent if the project m
AI.info Team ·
Oracle says the project is on schedule
Oracle says Project Jupiter remains on schedule, but the company has also sent the New Mexico data center’s developer a force majeure notice that could protect it from some costs if the project is delayed. The notice went to a unit of Blue Owl Capital, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. Oracle is not seeking to leave as the campus’s main tenant; the notice seeks to preserve its position if the site fails to come online as planned in 2028.
“Force-majeure notices are commonplace in developments of this scale and are often used to preserve contractual rights,” an Oracle spokesperson told Bloomberg. “They do not, by themselves, establish a project delay or change delivery expectations.” A Blue Owl spokesperson said the notice “does not change the financial commitments to this multiyear project” and that the parties remain “fully aligned on Project Jupiter.”
What the notice could change
The notice does not itself establish that a delay has happened or that Oracle can defer payments. Bloomberg reports that, if Oracle and the developer agree that a force majeure event tied to power commitments has occurred, Oracle could receive a three-year delay before rent payments begin. Oracle would still owe other costs in the interim and, once rent starts, the full rent due over the lease term.
The distinction matters: Oracle is seeking a contractual safeguard, not announcing a withdrawal from the project. Bloomberg also reports that the notice does not constitute an event of default under the project’s financing agreement. Whether the notice gives Oracle the relief it seeks remains uncertain.
Power permits complicate Project Jupiter
Project Jupiter is a major Stargate campus planned for southern New Mexico. Its design capacity is 2.45 gigawatts, enough to supply roughly 1.8 million homes at a given moment, according to Bloomberg. The project has faced opposition and regulatory setbacks, including a permit denial that affects plans for its energy supply.
That power question sits at the heart of the payment dispute: the potential rent delay Bloomberg describes depends on the parties recognizing a force majeure event linked to power commitments. Oracle, however, says the notice does not change its delivery expectations. The statements from Oracle and Blue Owl put a firm public line around the project’s schedule even as Oracle preserves a contingency in its contract.
Lenders and investors face the same uncertainty
About 20 banks provided an $18 billion loan to help fund the campus, Bloomberg reports. Debt tied to the development was trading below 90 cents on the dollar, according to a person familiar with the matter cited in the article. The notice could therefore draw attention from lenders even though Bloomberg’s source said it does not trigger a financing default.
The project’s outcome also bears on a wider question for data center construction: how leases allocate the cost of delays when a campus depends on power infrastructure and permits that are not yet settled. Bloomberg cites a June client alert from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan describing force majeure provisions in AI data center projects as a tool for allocating risks across construction, power, customer and financing agreements. For Project Jupiter, the immediate issue is narrower: whether Oracle and Blue Owl agree that the notice’s conditions have been met, and what that would mean for rent.