NVIDIA is now close enough to the data-center bill that its name belongs in the risk section. If you’re joining us mid-arc, here’s the short version: OpenAI’s Stargate push is moving on two tracks—a buildout with Oracle and SoftBank, plus reports that OpenAI is leaning more on rented AI servers from cloud providers. One focal point is Project Jupiter, a 1,400-acre AI data center in Santa Teresa for Oracle and OpenAI. It was already facing New Mexico Supreme Court petitions over construction groundwater and the air-permit process. This is The Data Center Daily. A court pause, a power-payment guarantee, and a state making developers follow the rules before it hands them the fast lane. This one's from KOB 4:
On Tuesday, the court acted on two separate environmental challenges tied to the data center under construction in Doña Ana County. In the case surrounding a pending air quality permit, the court paused the permitting process. The Center for Biological Diversity challenged emergency authorization for water from a newly constructed well, arguing state law does not treat the use as an emergency and, with that, the use would require a public hearing.
Update on the Project Jupiter permitting fights: New Mexico’s high court has paused the air-permit process, and the hearing officer stepped aside. Construction is still underway in Doña Ana County, but both legal fights just hit pause. And one of those fights is over water from a newly drilled well under an emergency authorization. The Center for Biological Diversity says this needs a public hearing before somebody finds their well running dry. The air case has its own problem: New Energy Economy sought discovery on how Jupiter will power the campus after the state denied a natural-gas pipeline across state land. The September 14 hearing is now on hold. Right—they’re building a 1,400-acre Oracle and OpenAI campus, and the power plan turned into a discovery fight. Those basics aren’t side quests when you’re pouring concrete in the desert. NVIDIA’s latest 10-Q has a disclosure that puts the company much closer to the Stargate buildout’s financial risk—not just the compute sale. Here’s the exact language from the filing:
In August 2026, we entered into guarantees with SB Energy Corp. to provide credit support on the land, power, and shell buildout at SB Energy's PORTS Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, covering leases for approximately 4.25 gigawatts of IT load.
NVIDIA is on the hook for land, power, and shell—not just the silicon. Its exposure now moves with lease and power-payment risk, not only GPU shipment schedules. That’s a very different balance-sheet commitment for this company. As Phase 1 approaches in fiscal 2029, watch NVIDIA’s contingent liabilities across the remaining eight construction phases. And keep an eye on any covenant language around tenant defaults; those guarantee triggers matter a lot for anyone modeling NVIDIA’s credit exposure. A second disclosure in NVIDIA’s latest 10-Q shows how the company is moving iron—and the risk it’s taking on to do it. Here’s the language directly from the filing:
In the second quarter of fiscal year 2027, we introduced a new business model with certain select AI cloud partners, to enable broader access to our data center infrastructure products to serve AI startups, model builders, enterprises, research organizations, and sovereign customers.
So NVIDIA isn’t just selling GPUs anymore. It’s effectively co-signing thirty-six billion dollars’ worth of compute commitments, and if demand doesn’t materialize on the partner side, NVIDIA is the backstop. That puts it in a very different balance-sheet position from a typical hardware vendor. Future filings need to show capacity utilization and off-balance-sheet obligations. The upside is broader infrastructure reach; the risk is NVIDIA absorbing stranded-capacity exposure at hyperscaler scale. Here's Ballard Spahr LLP:
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed Executive Order 2026-05 this week, converting Pennsylvania’s voluntary GRID Requirements into binding conditions for streamlined permitting and tax incentives related to data center development projects—joining New York, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Texas in a wave of gubernatorial action reshaping data center development nationwide.
Pennsylvania just put a gate in front of the fast lane. At 25 megawatts, sign DEP’s GRID Consent Order or prepare for permitting delays—and kiss the equipment tax break goodbye. Executive Order 2026-05 turns voluntary GRID requirements into an actual development condition. It ties Fast Track access, sales-and-use tax treatment, and certain development-zone programs to certification. After the New Mexico mess we just covered, this is a pretty clear instruction: settle the compliance terms before the excavators become emotionally invested. Ballard Spahr now counts five states on this list: Pennsylvania joins New York, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Texas. They’re using incentives and permitting to force a clearer answer on large-load development. If you’re finding The Data Center Daily useful, please subscribe or leave us a review wherever you’re listening. Reviews help other people discover the show, and we’re grateful you’re here.
We’re watching for the first phase of SB Energy’s PORTS Technology Campus plan, expected in fiscal year 2029. Links to every story are in the show notes, so check out the ones you’d like to explore further. That’s The Data Center Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.