Oracle Invokes 'Force Majeure' to Escape Payments on a Troubled New Mexico Data Center
Oracle Cites 'Force Majeure' to Shield Itself on Controversial Data Center
Oracle has sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter, a massive New Mexico data center, seeking to defer payments if the facility fails to come online in 2028 as planned. The project, developed by a unit of Blue Owl Capital, has already faced opposition and regulatory setbacks, and Oracle's move adds a new layer of uncertainty rather than a full exit.
Rather than trying to walk away as the site's main tenant, Oracle is attempting to put off payments should the data center dubbed Project Jupiter get derailed and fail to come online in 2028 as planned.
- tiffanyh
I realize there’s a lot of hate in this thread, but I think there’s another side to this.
Force majeure is basically there for situations where something outside a company’s control prevents them from delivering on a contract.
I can see Oracle’s argument here. A number of states and local governments that were originally very supportive of new data centers, including places like Texas and Pennsylvania, have since started blocking or restricting new construction.
If Oracle signed these contracts and the government later changed the rules and have stopped those projects from moving forward, it’s hard to argue they should still be held to the same delivery commitments.
(That seems pretty close to the type of situation force majeure is meant for.)
- giancarlostoro
I really don't get who keeps using Oracle outside of Java, and how they make their money, must be some legacy contracts or something, but Oracle has always been customer hostile, from all the things I've heard, they sound like a ransomware company (idk if they still do it, but they'd sell you the database, then "audit you" and if you used anything that wasn't in compliance, fine you, until you converted that to Oracle DB too or whatever wild stuff). I just don't get it. I get even less how its execs are okay running what could be a much more successful company so poorly. You can change Oracle for the better and become even more profitable if you change how you do business.
Take Java as a solid example, they removed JavaFX from the core of Java, which made everyone think JavaFX was dead, recently they started providing enterprise support for JavaFX, which signals its production ready, but, who wants to trust Oracle? I sure don't. I can use C# for free without any of that baggage, and if I get all sorts of stable options for a GUI, and with Avalonia (and Uno?) I can run my GUI on any OS.
- ozlikethewizard
Doesn't 'Force Majeure' mean exceptional events outside ones control? Pretty sure everything involved here is Oracles own making lol
- peri-cl
I'm surprised to hear that solid-oxide fuel cells are apparently a non-gimmick thing now.
> "Oracle signed a deal with solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) developer Bloom last year for 1.8GW of power, expanding it to 2.8GW of capacity in April."
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/new-mexico-regula...
Apparently this one would have been the largest SOFC installation, by far.
- potatototoo99
Will be interesting to see what excuses these companies will come up with to justify stopping investment in AI without spelling it out. The first one was already announced: it's going to kill everyone so we need to proceed more slowly.
- 0cf8612b2e1e
Surely this will assuage the creditors that Oracle is going to pay back its $100B+ loans.
- WokeUp420
The number of datacenters needing to come online doesn't add up to me. It's suspicious
- blakesterz
Reuters has a non-paywalled (short) report with a bit of detail:
https://www.reuters.com/business/oracle-cites-force-majeure-...