AI News Feed
Market watch
Island Raises $400M at $6.4B Valuation for Its Enterprise BrowserTsinghua Paper Details Cache-to-Cache Method That Lets AI Models Swap Internal Memory Without TextContractors Training OpenAI's AI Fired for Using AI, Report SaysQualcomm Puts Wi-Fi 6E Inside Its New Audio Chip in Bid to Untether Lossless EarbudsOracle Sends Force Majeure Notice to New Mexico Data Center Developer Over Energy DelaysCall of Duty: Warzone to Add Toggle Hiding Other Players' Goofy Skins
Island Raises $400M at $6.4B Valuation for Its Enterprise BrowserTsinghua Paper Details Cache-to-Cache Method That Lets AI Models Swap Internal Memory Without TextContractors Training OpenAI's AI Fired for Using AI, Report SaysQualcomm Puts Wi-Fi 6E Inside Its New Audio Chip in Bid to Untether Lossless EarbudsOracle Sends Force Majeure Notice to New Mexico Data Center Developer Over Energy DelaysCall of Duty: Warzone to Add Toggle Hiding Other Players' Goofy Skins
Companies

Oracle Sends Force Majeure Notice to New Mexico Data Center Developer Over Energy Delays

Oracle sent a force majeure notice to Project Jupiter over energy delays, as its stock fell on AI spending concerns.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-25 09:40

Force majeure is a contract clause used in the energy and commodities industries to excuse one party from fulfilling obligations because of events outside its control. Oracle is not trying to withdraw from its agreement to become the facility’s main tenant, but the notice would allow it to delay scheduled payments if the site does not come online by its 2028 target date.

The notice appeared to unsettle investors. Oracle’s stock fell more than 3% in regular trading after the report. The decline reflects growing nervousness about Oracle’s large spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Like Google LLC, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon Web Services Inc., Oracle has been spending heavily to build data centers for customers, while questions remain about when those investments will generate returns.

In its most recent earnings report earlier this month, Oracle said it spent $28.5 billion on capital expenditures during its fiscal first quarter, up from $8.5 billion in the same period a year earlier. The company also reported negative free cash flow of $5 billion in the quarter.

KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader told Barron’s that investors are concerned the notice could mean Oracle must wait longer to recognize some of the billions of dollars in its revenue backlog. “Oracle is in the most tenuous of cash positions of all the major hyperscalers,” Ader said. “These types of issues might spread, but Oracle feels it more acutely than its larger, more cash rich peers.”

Oracle said it does not expect significant delays at the New Mexico site. “Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule,” the company said in a statement to CNBC. “We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward.” Blue Owl Capital LLC, whose subsidiary is responsible for construction of the facility and received the notice, told Bloomberg that “this notice does not change the financial commitments to this multi-year project.”

The public statements from both parties came as the project has faced several setbacks that could delay completion. The campus is expected to generate 2.45 gigawatts of computing power when it comes online. It is set to run on gas-powered fuel cells supplied by Bloom Energy Inc., meaning the site requires a reliable gas supply.

That plan has encountered problems. According to Bloomberg, an energy transfer pipeline intended to carry gas to the facility was meant to come online earlier this summer but has been delayed until February next year after it failed to receive necessary permits from regulators. The developer has reportedly proposed a different route for the gas pipeline after the rejection. The facility is also awaiting a separate air-quality permit for its fuel-cell power system. New Mexico’s environmental department is due to decide on that issue before a November 23 deadline.

The project is one of the flagship sites of Oracle’s, SoftBank Group Corp.’s and OpenAI Group PBC’s $5 billion Project Stargate initiative, which was announced in January 2025 at the White House shortly after President Donald Trump began his second term. New Mexico residents have strongly opposed the project, drawing support from environmental groups, and it has become a political issue ahead of the midterm elections. Oracle has launched a major public outreach campaign in New Mexico aimed at winning over critics of the project, Bloomberg said.