Oracle’s New Mexico data center lease has “hell-or-high-water” terms, so it can’t be terminated and $ORCL must pay rent whether or not the site has power.
Project Jupiter, the 1,400-acre project, is designed to build infrastructure for OpenAI. However, it is heavily mired in power-supply and environmental permitting bottlenecks. A critical 17-mile natural gas pipeline needed to run the campus’s electrochemical Bloom Energy ($BE) fuel cells has been repeatedly rejected by state regulators.
Under the contract terms, securing power is entirely Oracle’s responsibility. Because of the “hell-or-high-water” clause, Oracle cannot terminate the lease under any circumstances, making them directly liable for the debt costs underlying Blue Owl’s $3 billion equity stake.
To hedge against these intensifying setbacks, Oracle has formally issued a “force majeure” notice to Blue Owl. While Oracle claims it remains fully committed to the project and that it is on schedule for its 2028 operational target, the legal notice is an aggressive attempt to pause or defer its rent obligations if power delays push the facility past its deadline.
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