Oracle stock dips on report Blue Owl won’t back $10B data center

Oracle stocks dipped about 6% on Wednesday following a report that discussions with Blue Owl Capital on backing a $10 billion data center in Michigan had stalled, although the cloud company later disputed the report.

Blue Owl had been in talks with Oracle about funding a 1-gigawatt facility for OpenAI in Saline Township, Michigan, according to the Financial Times.

However, the plans fell through due to concerns about Oracle’s rising debt levels and extensive artificial intelligence spending, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The cloud company later said the project was moving forward and “on schedule,” but that Blue Owl was not part of equity talks.

“Our development partner, Related Digital, selected the best equity partner from a competitive group of options, which in this instance was not Blue Owl. Final negotiations for their equity deal are moving forward on schedule and according to plan,” Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert said in a statement.

Blue Owl Capital and the FT did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Blackstone Inc. is in discussions to potentially replace Blue Owl Capital as a financial partner for the data center, although no deal has been signed yet, according to the FT.

Blue Owl Capital has been the primary investor in Oracle’s data center projects in the U.S., including a $15 billion center in Abilene, Texas, and an 18 billion site in New Mexico, the FT said.

The cloud computing giant has $248 billion in lease commitments for data centers and cloud capacity commitments over the next 15 to 19 years as of Nov. 30, the company said in its latest quarterly filing. That is up almost 148% from August.

In September, Oracle raised $18 billion in new debt, according to an SEC filing. That same month, OpenAI announced a $300 billion partnership with Oracle over the next five years.

By the end of November, the company owed over $124 billion, including operating lease liabilities, according to the filing.

Oracle shares are down about 46% from the high this year.

Read the full FT story here.