Oracle sent a force majeure notice about Project Jupiter. The stock dropped three percent. Retail traders who bought shares last week because they saw a TikTok about cloud computing are now explaining to their spouses why the car payment is late.
Force majeure means an act of God prevented you from doing what you promised. War. Earthquake. Tornado. Also apparently means "we don't want to pay for this data center on time." God works in mysterious ways. Mostly through Oracle's legal department.
Project Jupiter won't come online until 2028. That's six years from now. Oracle wants to delay payment because waiting six years for a data center is somehow different than the timeline they agreed to when they signed the contract. The other party in this deal presumably owns a calendar. They've checked it. 2028 was always 2028.
The stock dropped three percent because investors realized Oracle might not pay for something on schedule. This surprised exactly nobody who has ever worked with Oracle on anything. Installing Oracle databases is like getting a tattoo from a guy who's also your parole officer. You knew it would hurt. You knew it would cost more than quoted. You're still shocked when he bills you for the numbing cream separately.
Somewhere a portfolio manager is telling his clients that cloud infrastructure buildouts face macro headwinds. What he means is Oracle doesn't want to write the check. The data center exists in a legal filing. It exists in a press release from 2024. It exists in the fever dreams of whoever approved this contract. It does not exist in physical reality. It will not exist in physical reality for years.
Force majeure used to mean something. Now it means "we changed our mind about paying you."
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