Oracle, Stack present Project Jupyter; residents press county on water, jobs and transparency

Oracle and Stack Infrastructure representatives on Tuesday detailed Project Jupyter’s scale and community commitments, and faced sustained public questioning about water, jobs and oversight.

“I lead the cloud infrastructure business at Oracle,” Mahesh said in the presentation, describing Project Jupyter as “one of the largest private investments in New Mexico’s history” and estimating roughly $4.7 billion in economic benefits over the project’s life. He said the project has committed $50 million toward local water infrastructure and that more than $10 million in taxes already have been paid to Dona Ana County. Bobby Hollis of Stack Infrastructure said construction peak jobs have been revised up to about 7,000 and repeated earlier operational estimates of roughly 1,500 ongoing positions.

The presentation described technical safeguards the companies say will limit local impacts: Oracle and Stack told the commission the facility will use closed-loop liquid cooling with a one-time fill from nonpotable sources, rely primarily on on-site fuel cells (which the presenters said produce little combustion noise), and commit to 100% carbon-free energy matching by 2031. “No potable public drinking water will be used,” Mahesh said.

Public commenters offered sharply differing views. Several construction and union speakers credited the project with creating local jobs and rising gross receipts taxes; Prasando Najjar told the commission the project has driven GRT from about $1.2 million to roughly $13.2 million a month for parts of the county. Other residents and technical commenters urged a pause or tighter guardrails, citing unresolved questions about how data collected at the site will be used, long-term environmental and noise impacts, and whether contract terms include enforceable penalties if job and local-hiring targets are not met.

Commissioners pressed presenters for documentation. Commissioner Kimball asked why quarterly employment reports were not posted; presenters said the county’s upload portal delayed submission and said employment rosters would be posted by the July 31 reporting deadline. On carbon claims, Mahesh said the company will fund renewable projects in New Mexico to “match” annual emissions rather than directly power the campus from those renewables today. On water, the presenters repeated their plan to use nonpotable (brackish) water and an industry-standard closed-loop system; they estimated annual operational water use equal to "less than nine single-family homes" for ongoing maintenance, and said construction water use is being tracked separately.

The presenters committed to more town halls, release of technical reports on heat, noise and emission modeling, and more detailed employment reporting. Commissioners and members of the public said they will continue to press for data and enforceable compliance mechanisms through the county’s existing agreement and monitoring processes.

Next steps: Oracle and Stack said they will upload compliance documents and employment rosters by the announced deadlines and continue community outreach; the county flagged upcoming regulatory permit hearings and potential monitoring committee discussions at a future work session.