Morgan Stanley said that Oracle Corp has issued a force majeure notice to a large data center developer in New Mexico, prompting fresh scrutiny of related loan and lease documents and creating additional challenges for companies planning to finance AI infrastructure buildouts through debt markets.

Analysts Lindsay Tyler and Vishwas Patkar and others wrote in a research note on Friday: "We expect that transactions still carrying substantial construction or completion risk, with weaker tenant credit quality, will be most affected. By contrast, assets nearing stable operations with lower construction risk will be less vulnerable to this type of issue."

Companies planning to raise billions of dollars to build artificial intelligence infrastructure already face rising borrowing costs, abundant supply pushing risk premiums higher, and growing opposition to data centers across the United States.

The analysts said Oracle's move is intended to avoid costs related to delays at the New Mexico data center, adding contract-level uncertainty to an already pressured market.

The research note stated: "The core question is whether this is merely an isolated dispute or whether it will set a precedent that other tenants can invoke. If another leading cloud provider takes similar action, it could have a greater market impact, prompting a comprehensive reassessment of contractual safeguard provisions."