Oracle’s data centre partner Blue Owl Capital has reportedly withdrawn from the company’s planned data centre in Michigan, sending Oracle’s shares down 5.4%.
Blue Owl was previously considering an investment in the US$10 billion 1 gigawatt data centre, but withdrew after negotiations stalled, the Financial Times reported. The facility would be part of OpenAI’s Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project.
“Our development partner, Related Digital, selected the best equity partner from a competitive group of options, which in this instance was not Blue Owl,” Oracle said in a statement to media.
“Final negotiations for their equity deal are moving forward on schedule and according to plan.”
Oracle has reportedly not yet confirmed a deal with its new partner and did not name them. Blackstone has discussed joining as a financial backer, per the Financial Times, though it has not signed an agreement.
Construction on the data centre is still scheduled to start in early 2026, Related Digital said.
Blue Owl reportedly withdrew as lenders sought stricter leasing and debt terms, partly due to Oracle’s escalating artificial intelligence spending. Oracle reported $248 billion in lease commitments from data centres and cloud capacity arrangements last quarter.
Following the news, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Blue Owl, Oracle’s largest data centre partner, had been in talks to support the $10 billion project but failed to agree on terms comparable to those of other developments.
OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate initiative to build United States data centres would have more than 8 gigawatts of capacity across its currently announced facilities. The data centre in southeast Michigan’s Saline Township was announced in October, and is part of a 4.5 gigawatt partnership with Oracle and OpenAI struck in July.
Oracle’s (NYSE: ORCL) shares dropped to $178.46 from its previous close at $188.63. Its shares have fallen 6.4% across the past five trading days, having slumped since it forecast weaker-than-expected gross margins last week.
Other AI-related stocks also slipped after the report, with Nvidia down 3.8%, Broadcom down 4.5%, AMD down 5.3%, and Intel down 3.3%.
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