What We Know About Oracle's New Mexico Stargate Force Majeure

Oracle has sent a force majeure notice to the developer behind Project Jupiter, a 2.45-gigawatt Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, giving the company legal cover to delay payments if the site misses its 2028 target to come online, TechCrunch reported, citing Bloomberg as the first to report the notice.

What is Project Jupiter?

Project Jupiter is one of the flagship campuses of Stargate, the AI infrastructure initiative Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank announced with President Donald Trump early in his second term. Oracle is the anchor tenant. The developer that received the notice is a unit of Blue Owl Capital.

What does a force majeure notice actually do here?

Force majeure clauses are standard in energy and commodities contracts and excuse a party from its obligations when events outside its control interfere with performance. In this case, according to Bloomberg's sources as relayed by TechCrunch, Oracle is not trying to exit as the campus's main tenant. The notice instead preserves Oracle's option to delay payments if the facility isn't ready by 2028.

Blue Owl Capital told CNBC the notice "does not change the financial commitments to this multi-year project." Oracle told CNBC: "Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule. We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward."

Why is the site's energy supply causing problems?

The 2.45-gigawatt campus is designed to run on gas-powered fuel cells from Bloom Energy, which makes a steady gas supply central to the project's timeline. Two permitting fights are bearing on that supply directly.

What is the timeline for the outstanding permits?

• An Energy Transfer pipeline meant to deliver gas to the site has slipped nearly six months, to Feb. 1, 2027, after regulators repeatedly denied permits for the line.
• In August 2026, Bloomberg reported the pipeline's route had been changed following those rejections.
• A separate air quality permit for the fuel cell system is still pending before New Mexico's environment department, which faces a Nov. 23, 2026 deadline to rule.
• The campus's own construction target remains 2028, per Oracle's public statements.

Why has the project become politically sensitive?

Project Jupiter has drawn opposition from residents and environmental groups and has become a flashpoint ahead of the midterm elections, according to Bloomberg's reporting cited by TechCrunch. Oracle has responded with a public outreach campaign in New Mexico aimed at winning over the project's critics.

The notice arrives as AI data center construction faces broader scrutiny nationally, with developers absorbing steep costs to build capacity for customers such as OpenAI. Neither Oracle nor Blue Owl immediately responded to TechCrunch's separate requests for comment beyond the statements each gave CNBC.

For now, the practical effect of the notice is narrow: it gives Oracle a contractual hedge against a 2028 miss without altering its stated commitment to the project or Blue Owl's financial obligations, based on the statements both companies have made public.