Oracle's Stargate Data Center in New Mexico Is Stuck Behind a Pipeline

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Oracle's Stargate Data Center in New Mexico Is Stuck Behind a Pipeline

Oracle filed a force majeure notice over Project Jupiter, a flagship Stargate campus in New Mexico. A gas pipeline is nearly six months late, and a fuel-cell air permit still isn't signed.

Oracle is hedging its bets. The company sent developer Blue Owl Capital a formal force majeure notice covering Project Jupiter, one of the flagship campuses of the Stargate initiative in New Mexico, rated at 2.45 gigawatts. That doesn't mean Oracle is walking away — the notice simply protects the company from penalties if the site misses its original 2028 opening target.

The reason is refreshingly unglamorous: a pipeline. The Energy Transfer gas line meant to fuel the campus's power plant is running nearly six months behind schedule after regulators repeatedly rejected permits for its original route, forcing a reroute in August 2026. The new in-service date is now February 1, 2027. A second holdup involves an air-quality permit for the Bloom Energy fuel cells that are also meant to power the site — New Mexico's environment department has until November 23 to rule on it.

"Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule. We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward," Oracle said. Blue Owl, for its part, stressed that the notice "does not change the financial commitments to this multi-year project." Both statements are technically accurate — force majeure clauses are routine boilerplate in contracts this large, not a fire alarm. But the fact that Stargate's biggest build, the joint OpenAI-Oracle-SoftBank venture unveiled alongside Trump early in his second term, is being held up by a pipeline permit and a state agency's calendar says something about how fragile AI infrastructure logistics have become. The site has also turned into a local political flashpoint, with residents and environmental groups opposing it ahead of the midterms.

New Mexico isn't the only place where power, not silicon, is the bottleneck. A day later, on September 25, Crusoe Energy walked away from a $1.25 billion deal with turbine maker Boom Supersonic that was supposed to give its data centers a stopgap power source built around 29 gas turbines. One company after another is discovering that megawatts, not chips, now set the pace of the AI buildout.

Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions about this article

What is Project Jupiter?

It's a 2.45-gigawatt data center campus in New Mexico and one of the flagship sites of Stargate, the AI infrastructure venture from OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. The campus is being built by developer Blue Owl Capital, with Oracle as the anchor tenant.

What does the force majeure notice actually change?

It isn't an exit from the project. The notice gives Oracle a contractual right to delay payments if the site misses its original 2028 completion target. Both Oracle and developer Blue Owl say the project's financial commitments remain unchanged.

Why is the build delayed?

Because of an Energy Transfer gas pipeline: regulators repeatedly rejected permits for its original route, forcing a reroute in August 2026 that pushed the in-service date to February 1, 2027. Separately, New Mexico regulators have until November 23 to decide on an air-quality permit for the Bloom Energy fuel cells that also power the campus.

Is this an isolated case?

It looks more like a pattern. A day later, on September 25, Crusoe Energy canceled a $1.25 billion deal with turbine maker Boom Supersonic that was meant to give its data centers backup power. More and more AI infrastructure players are running into energy constraints rather than compute ones.

What is Stargate as a whole?

It's a large-scale initiative by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank to build AI computing infrastructure across the US, unveiled alongside President Trump early in his second term. Project Jupiter is just one of several campuses announced under the initiative.

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