Oracle files force majeure notice on Stargate data center project after permitting delays

3 min read
Oracle files force majeure notice on Stargate data center project after permitting delays
PrimeXBT Editorial Team
Reviewed by PrimeXBT

Oracle filed a force majeure notice dated September 24, 2026 on Project Jupiter, its 1,400-acre Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, citing power-related permitting delays. The project's construction debt is trading at 89 to 91 cents on the dollar as pipeline approvals slip and environmental objections pile up.

Oracle's data center campus in southern New Mexico is running into obstacles that computing power cannot solve. The company issued a force majeure notice dated September 24, 2026, telling partners that forces beyond its control may prevent it from hitting key deadlines on Project Jupiter, a cornerstone of the Stargate AI initiative.

The project's construction debt is already trading at 89 to 91 cents on the dollar, a sign lenders are pricing in a meaningful probability that something goes sideways.

What Project Jupiter actually is

Project Jupiter is a 1,400-acre hyperscale data center campus in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, designed to deliver up to 2.45 gigawatts of power capacity. Stack Infrastructure, a portfolio company of Blue Owl Capital, is developing the site, with Oracle serving as the anchor tenant. The workloads running on those servers would primarily serve OpenAI, making the campus a critical piece of the broader Stargate initiative.

Blue Owl has committed approximately $3 billion in equity. A bank consortium that includes Goldman Sachs has arranged up to $20 billion in construction debt. Oracle's notice points specifically to power-related delays as the primary culprit, allowing the company to suspend certain financial obligations tied to milestones disrupted by external regulatory holdups, particularly around a natural gas pipeline meant to fuel on-site power generation.

Where the problems are stacking up

The pipeline permitting timeline has slipped to February 2027 at the earliest, pushing the project's 2028 operational target into uncomfortable territory. Air quality approvals have also become a battleground, as local environmental groups have raised objections about emissions from the facility. Water usage is another flashpoint in a region where arid conditions make every large-scale industrial consumer a subject of public scrutiny.

Oracle has attempted to defuse the emissions issue by pivoting its power strategy. The company says it will use Bloom Energy fuel cells instead of the originally planned natural gas turbines, a swap that would significantly reduce the facility's air quality footprint. This isn't Oracle's only Stargate headache, either: in Saline Township, Michigan, another Oracle-affiliated Stargate location has faced lawsuits over zoning disputes and environmental concerns that have delayed development.

The financing question gets louder

Oracle maintains that the project remains on schedule despite the force majeure notice, a statement that requires some creative interpretation given that force majeure notices exist precisely to signal schedule risk. The company's willingness to adapt its power strategy suggests genuine commitment to making the project work, but commitment and completion are different things.

Source: Crypto Briefing

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