Oracle sends 'force majeure' notice to Project Jupiter developers to protect itself from liability

  Oracle is seeking to free itself from liability if setbacks emerge and delay the timeline for its controversial Project Jupiter — the massive Santa Teresa development that is intended to host artificial intelligence infrastructure for companies like Oracle and OpenAI.

The data center has spurred protests, lawsuits and fierce pushback over concerns about its environmental impact and transparency. 

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Oracle sent a notice of "force majeure" to Blue Owl Capital Inc., which owns STACK Infrastructure, another developer behind the data center. With this notice, Oracle is trying to put off payments if the data center does not come online in 2028 as planned, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg.

Oracle shares fell almost 5% Thursday, while Blue Owl Capital Inc.'s shares fell over 4%. This comes as Oracle faces $18 billion in debt tied to the data center, according to the Financial Times. 

"Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule. We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward," Michael Egbert, Oracle's vice president, wrote in an email to The New Mexican on Thursday. "Force-majeure notices are commonplace in developments of this scale and are often used to preserve contractual rights among project partners. They do not, by themselves, establish a project delay or change delivery expectations."

A spokesperson for STACK Infrastructure did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning. 

Project Jupiter has faced a series of regulatory hurdles. Most recently, the New Mexico Supreme Court paused its permitting proceedings, only to pave the way for them to continue Sept. 17. A gas pipeline that would power the data center was set to begin service this month, but it has yet to be authorized by the New Mexico State Land Office.  

"New Mexico has already given over 200 million gallons of our fresh water to construct something that is not only terrible for our environment but also appears to be on shaky grounds financially," said Colin Cox, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in a statement to The New Mexican on Thursday. "The state should turn off the pump. There is no emergency to start building something that may never be finished."

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