Oracle Invokes Force Majeure on Project Jupiter as Power Delays Stress AI Factory Credit
Oracle sends a force majeure notice to Blue Owl’s STACK on New Mexico’s Project Jupiter over power delays — with secondary reports of a roughly one-year schedule slip and stressed trading on about $18 billion of project loans — while Virtus locks a GBP 2.45 billion UK bank package, Humain advances 6 GW Riyadh enabling works, and NERC’s computational-load drafts set a 50 MW / 100 kV floor.
Today’s Signals
- Oracle-Blue Owl Jupiter FM – Force majeure notice over power delays on the ~2.45 GW Dona Ana County Stargate campus; ~$18B project loans already soft (~89-91c mid-Sep); Oracle and Blue Owl say schedule and commitments unchanged.
- Virtus GBP 2.45B – 13-bank UK/Europe package with GBP 1.2B green capex; backs 78 MW Saunderton AI-ready campus plus LONDON19 / continental growth.
- Humain 6 GW Riyadh ECI – Al-Yamama selected for enabling infrastructure on PIF-backed Al-Saad campus (24 km2 / six 1 GW plots); value undisclosed; not a full construction award.
- NERC CLO 50 MW / 100 kV – Draft computational-load standards; comment period closed Sep 18; FERC filing due Dec 31.
- CleanSpark $2.276B notes – 7.875% senior secured due 2031 priced at 98.5 on Sep 18; close eyed today (Sep 25) — priced book, close not yet confirmed.
The Big Story
The AI factory just learned what happens when scheduled power misses the credit documents. On September 24, Bloomberg and Reuters reported that Oracle sent a force majeure notice to Blue Owl’s STACK Infrastructure on Project Jupiter, the roughly 1,400-acre Dona Ana County campus designed around about 2.45 gigawatts of on-site power for OpenAI-tied Stargate capacity. Oracle says force-majeure notices preserve contractual rights and Jupiter remains on its planned schedule; Blue Owl says the notice does not change financial commitments. Secondary color is sharper: a Reuters source said securing power is Oracle’s responsibility, Oracle cannot terminate the lease, and Blue Owl holds about $3 billion of equity at a lower development-stage return until completion. Bloomberg syndication said that if both sides agree a power-related force majeure occurred, Oracle could defer higher rent by as much as three years while still owing interim costs and the full lease term later. A separate Reuters evening piece framed a roughly one-year program delay and said the chill was already showing up in other OpenAI-tied financings, including SB Energy’s Ohio path and a delayed IPO. Mid-September FT coverage via Reuters had about $18 billion of Jupiter-linked bank loans quoted at 89 to 91 cents; September 25 Insurance Journal color put trading below 90 cents. Fuel midstream is the physical hook: Energy Transfer’s gas line meant to feed Bloom Energy fuel cells slipped nearly six months to February 1, 2027 after New Mexico State Land Office route denials. Yesterday priced the coupon. Today prices the calendar.
AI
For the GPU and cloud stack, Project Jupiter is an offtake story before it is a campus story: Oracle is the anchor tenant writing OpenAI-facing capacity into a Blue Owl / STACK shell, so a power-timed force majeure is a delivery risk on contracted compute, not a demand signal. Reuters evening coverage said the financing chill was already touching other OpenAI-linked packages, including SB Energy discussions around an Ohio campus — demand still shows up as multi-gigawatt offtake talk; the constraint is who can clear power, permits, and bankable documents on the same calendar. Separately on September 24, JPMorgan upgraded CoreWeave to Overweight and lifted its target to $125, citing premium short-term compute contracts — sell-side color on a GPU-cloud operator, not a new hyperscaler purchase order.
Money
Credit bifurcated in public. Jupiter’s reported $18 billion bank package was already trading soft before the force majeure headlines, with syndicate banks including Santander and Jefferies quoted in mid-September FT coverage near 89 to 91 cents. On the clearing side, VIRTUS Data Centres secured a GBP 2.45 billion UK and Europe financing package from a 13-bank group coordinated by BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, Societe Generale, and Standard Chartered — including a GBP 1.2 billion green capex facility tied in trade coverage to the 78 MW AI-ready Saunderton campus, LONDON19 in Slough, and continental growth; coupon undisclosed. CleanSpark’s CSDC Finance I still sits as a priced book: $2.276 billion of 7.875% senior secured notes due 2031 at 98.5, with close eyed September 25 — not yet a confirmed funded close as of this draft. Humain’s Al-Yamama early-contractor-involvement award advances enabling works on a planned 6 GW Riyadh campus without disclosing package value — progress, not a closed project-finance print.
Energy & Power
Power is the clause that moved. Project Jupiter’s design path in secondary coverage runs through Bloom Energy gas fuel cells fed by an Energy Transfer pipeline that was supposed to begin service this month and is now slipped to February 1, 2027 after repeated New Mexico State Land Office route denials. Albuquerque Journal notes the New Mexico Supreme Court recently lifted stays on an air-quality permit path framed around a 2.45 GW power plant and on construction-well use — legal process and midstream schedule are not moving in lockstep. Separately today, NANO Nuclear, IP3, and Cybernetic Intelligence announced a non-binding letter of intent to pursue nuclear-powered AI compute opportunities — talks only, no reactor COD or financing close. Yesterday’s New Era-Vistra power-for-equity PPA stays on Watching.
Government Power
Reliability rulemaking is naming numbers while project politics stays local. NERC’s draft CLO-001, CLO-002, and CLO-003 computational-load standards apply to sites at or above 50 MW that also connect at 100 kV or higher — a floor FERC declined to set itself when it ordered the work in July, with a filing deadline of December 31. The first comment period and ballot closed September 18. PJM, responding to a July 22 event when nearly 4,000 MW of Northern Virginia data-center load disconnected onto backup, has proposed ride-through rules for the same 50 MW / 100 kV class: stay connected through specified disturbances, restore at least 90% of load within two seconds after qualifying voltage sags, and keep frequency-disturbance draw within 10% of normal, with a November FERC filing targeted. Mid-November RTO responses to FERC’s June large-load show-cause orders remain the federal deadline to watch.
Startup and Small Business Signal
Europe’s AI-cloud middle market just cleared unicorn equity while U.S. mega-campus paper digests force majeure. On September 22, Helsinki-founded Verda closed a $189 million oversubscribed Series B led by Emergence Capital, with MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders, Tesi, and angels participating. Company framing: more than $450 million total funding, valuation above $1 billion, $165 million annualized revenue run rate in July, and a path toward more than 250 MW of operations in 2027. Full-stack AI cloud — owned data centers through platform — not a single-tenant HY shell.
AMP Bottom Line
Demand for AI megawatts is not the scarce input this morning — timed power and enforceable documents are. Oracle preserved force majeure rights on Project Jupiter while publicly denying a schedule change; secondary markets had already marked the related $18 billion loan package soft. Virtus still cleared GBP 2.45 billion of UK bank appetite for a portfolio operator. Humain moved Riyadh enabling works. NERC and PJM are writing 50 MW ride-through and registration language into the reliability stack. The AI factory is being priced on who can deliver electrons on the contract calendar — not on who can announce gigawatts.