So the Oracle data center project in New Mexico took on $18 billion in construction loans - Project Jupiter - WITHOUT ANY CONNECTION TO ENERGY.
This is one of the flagship projects President Trump touted as his "Stargate" initiative to build compute infrastructure in the United States.
Last week, Oracle declared force majeure with Blue Owl Capital, which owns the company building the project. This force majeure declaration claims that Oracle remains committed to the project, but won't pay anything if the project doesn't come online.
The original design of the project relied on a promised 2.2 GW of gas turbines that never materialized because the State of New Mexico BLOCKED the pipeline extension. The NM Supreme Court also halted the air quality permitting process after lawsuits were filed by environmental groups. That process has since resumed but the permits still haven't been granted because 2.2 GW of gas turbines absolutely terrifies the carbon cultists / climate cultist who despise anything running on hydrocarbons. (New Mexico is run by climate-terrified liberals.)
As a result, the $18 billion construction loan is now reportedly trading at 89 - 91 cents on the dollar, a roughly 10% discount on the loan, which of course indicates a level of risk that nobody thought possible on AI construction projects (until now).
To summarize:
- There's no power connection. Still.
- No air quality permits have been acquired. Even with energy, you can't turn it on without the air permits.
- Lenders are starting to panic and discount the loan due to risk.
- The project will certainly be delayed, and its entire future remains in doubt since there's still no energy solution.
Put another way, Oracle borrowed $18 billion to build a hyperscale data center that HAS NO POWER!
Is building empty data centers Oracle's new business model? Because it sure seems to attract a lot of investment, even if it never gets power.
If this project falls, probably the whole dam breaks on the AI investment bubble, which would be a GOOD thing in my view. Huge misallocation of capital and resources. A day of reckoning is coming for this industry.