Oracle told the owner of its newest data centre it might not pay on time

Oracle

Oracle closed at US$139.52 on Thursday, down 3.49%, after Bloomberg reported it had sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter. That is a 2.45-gigawatt campus on 1,400 acres in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, built to serve Oracle's computing contract with OpenAI.

A force majeure notice is an excuse note with legal weight. It says events outside a company's control may stop it meeting its obligations. Oracle is not giving up the site. It wants the right to defer payments if the campus misses its 2028 opening.

The hold-up is gas. Jupiter runs on Bloom Energy fuel cells fed by an Energy Transfer pipeline, and New Mexico's State Land Office has refused the route twice, in March and again in July. The pipeline's start date has slipped to 1 February 2027.

Chart: Oracle spent US$28.5bn on capital works in the quarter to August. It took in US$19.3bn of revenue. Oracle's capital spending (cash paid for property and equipment) against its revenue, June-to-August quarter each year, 2021 to 2026, in US$bn. — This story’s chart of the day: the numbers, the dark version and the animated version are on its own page. The chart’s page →

Lenders noticed first. Around 20 banks put up a US$18 billion loan for the campus, and that debt has been quoted between 89 and 91 cents in the dollar. Oracle says the project is on schedule. Blue Owl Capital, the developer, says the financial commitments stand.

What to watch

the air-quality permit, due by 23 November. Oracle spent US$28.5 billion on capital works in the quarter to 31 August, against US$8.5 billion a year earlier. I'd want to see who wears the cost when one of these campuses runs late, because this is the first real test of it.

This story ran in The Excuse Note Friday 25 September’s edition, with the market snapshot, the other two stories, the numbers and the week ahead. Read the whole edition →

General information and commentary only, not financial advice. It does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs, and reflects the author's own reading of public information at the time of writing, which may be wrong. Sharespective, its people and its clients may hold positions in the companies covered. Do your own research and talk to a licensed adviser.