Oracle has sent a so-called “force majeure” letter regarding Project Jupiter, the proposed data center campus in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The company reportedly wants to protect itself against higher costs and payments if the campus is not operational by 2028. According to Oracle, the project is on schedule.
Bloomberg reported on the incident based on unnamed sources. The notice was sent to the developer, a subsidiary of Blue Owl Capital. Oracle maintains that there is no cause for concern and that Project Jupiter remains on schedule.
The project involves a campus of approximately 566 hectares, developed by Stack Infrastructure and BorderPlex Digital Assets. Oracle has publicly identified itself as a tenant. It is one of several projects aimed at both growing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as a whole and providing specific AI capacity, particularly to OpenAI through the Stargate project.
$18 billion in debt under pressure
The costs of this AI expansion are substantial, leading to significant debt accumulation. Reuters reported earlier this month that the $18 billion in loans for the data center are being traded. Those loans were arranged late last year to finance the construction of multiple projects in the U.S.
In fiscal year 2026, Oracle raised $43 billion in debt and $5 billion in equity, with capital expenditures (capex) totaling $55.7 billion. For fiscal year 2027, the company aims to raise another approximately $40 billion. CNBC summarized the criticism by noting that Oracle is “building yesterday’s data centers with tomorrow’s debt.” The discrepancy between the accelerating performance of Nvidia chips with each generation (and the changing demands that come with it) and the slow construction of data centers is, well beyond Oracle, a problem for which there is still no immediate solution.
Part of Stargate
Project Jupiter is also part of Stargate. This is the leading AI infrastructure program by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. New Mexico had previously been mentioned as a potential location, alongside Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio, among others. We reported a year ago that OpenAI and Oracle were aiming for a 1-gigawatt Stargate data center as their flagship.
That project has since faced delays and regulatory challenges. There has certainly been a surge in local opposition to data centers in the U.S. in recent months, which is putting further pressure on these ambitions, in addition to complaints from environmental organizations regarding the use of fossil fuels for power generation. Companies like Oracle have responded to this on multiple occasions, for example by switching from gas turbines to fuel cells to meet the significant power requirements.