This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Oracle (ORCL, Financials) is shining a light on the finance concerns underpinning the AI infrastructure boom after invoking force majeure over probable delays at a large New Mexico data center project.Project Jupiter, a STACK Infrastructure project being created by Blue Owl Capital to enable OpenAI, may be delayed by around one year due to challenges in procuring power, Reuters reported.The interesting thing is the scale of the setback. The 1,400-acre project has raised nearly $18 billion in loans, while Blue Owl has contributed about $3 billion of equity.The delay matters since Blue Owl’s profits are partly linked to when construction concludes. The firm earns a 9% yield on its stock during development and the levered yield is expected to increase to around 11% when the facility is complete.Blue Owl claimed the notice of force majeure does not impact their financial commitments to Project Jupiter and that STACK and Oracle remain committed to Project Jupiter.But the incident raises a significant dilemma about the AI boom: Who foots the bill when massive data center projects hit power shortages, building delays or higher financing costs?Oracle shares dropped 3.5% to $139.54 Thursday and Blue Owl slid 3.7% to $9.25.The next catalyst will be if Project Jupiter remains on its projected timeline and what the response from the lenders will be as financing demands for huge AI data centers continue to expand.