The project, key to the AI infrastructure of OpenAI and SoftBank, faces energy supply delays and growing local opposition.
Oracle has sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter, a Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, according to Bloomberg. The measure, common in energy and commodity contracts, allows one party to temporarily suspend certain obligations when circumstances beyond its control arise.
Sources cited by Bloomberg indicate that Oracle does not intend to abandon its position as the campus’s main tenant. The notice would instead allow the company to delay payments if the facility fails to become operational in 2028, as planned.
The company maintains that the project is proceeding as scheduled. “Project Jupiter remains within our planned timeline,” Oracle told CNBC. “We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward.” Blue Owl Capital, whose unit received the notification, stated that the notice “does not change the financial commitments of this multi-year project.”
The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of AI data center construction and the high costs developers are assuming to serve clients such as OpenAI.
The campus, designed to operate at 2.45 gigawatts, depends on gas-powered fuel cells from Bloom Energy, making a stable gas supply essential. However, a pipeline intended to supply the site has accumulated a nearly six-month delay, until February 1, 2027, after regulators repeatedly denied permits for the line. In August, Bloomberg reported that the pipeline’s route was changed following those denials. Additionally, an air quality permit for the fuel cell system remains pending, and the state environmental department has until November 23 to decide.
Project Jupiter is one of the most emblematic sites of Stargate, the AI infrastructure initiative that Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank presented alongside President Donald Trump at the start of his second term. The campus has drawn opposition from residents and environmental groups, and has become a focal point of political conflict ahead of the midterm elections. According to Bloomberg, Oracle has responded with a public outreach campaign in the state aimed at winning over critics of the project.
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