Related, Oracle Finalizing $16B Data Center Financing Deal

Oracle’s latest Stargate data center project is close to securing financing following monthslong negotiations with investors that put the development's future in doubt. 

Related Digital — Related Cos.’ new data center arm — has lined up a $16B financing deal for a massive data center in Saline Township, Michigan, that will be leased to Oracle, Bloomberg reported. 

The project is part of part of the tech firm’s Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure partnership with OpenAI.

The financing will come in the form of a $2B equity investment from Blackstone and $14B in debt led by Bank of America, Bloomberg reported.

A Related spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that a financing deal will be completed soon, and an Oracle spokesperson said the firm is "proud of the rapid progress that's been made both in financing and developing our data center."

The structure of the deal looks very different than initially anticipated, after months of negotiations in which the future of the project’s funding was on the rocks. 

Blackstone’s capital contribution now amounts to just half of what the firm initially considered, Bloomberg reported. The $14B in debt from Bank of America was originally structured as a construction loan but will now reportedly be tied to a bond offering. Meanwhile, Blue Owl Capital, a major backer of hyperscale data center development, had reportedly considered investing in the project but backed out over the winter. 

The wariness from investors and lenders stems from concerns around both the specific Michigan project and with Oracle itself. 

Related Digital’s Saline Township campus — sometimes referred to as “The Barn” — could eventually host more than a gigawatt of capacity on a 250-acre site. Like many large-scale data center developments across the U.S., the project encountered local opposition that put its future in doubt.

Local officials initially rejected land use changes required for the project, causing Blackstone to pause financing talks until an agreement with the township was reached late last year. 

There reportedly were also concerns about Oracle’s lease terms and the degree to which they guaranteed future revenue for the project. Bloomberg reported that lenders demanded changes to the lease terms to ensure that Oracle’s payments would be guaranteed even if the firm didn't ultimately use all available capacity at the site. 

Additionally, concerns are mounting around Oracle itself and the sustainability of the hundreds of billions of dollars the firm is spending to back new data center development.

Oracle's massive investments into AI infrastructure have drawn more scrutiny from Wall Street than other Big Tech firms, in part because it is using a far greater percentage of debt relative to its equity than other companies. 

In January, TD Cowen analysts wrote in a note to clients that data center projects that relied on Oracle as a tenant were having trouble securing financing, Bloomberg reported. According to the note, spreads on those deals had risen as high as 450 basis points above the standard rates for such projects, an indication that lenders and equity investors consider Oracle to be a particularly risky tenant compared to other Big Tech hyperscalers.

“In cases where US banks are still open to lending, our checks indicate that borrowing cost spreads for Oracle-linked data center projects have widened to non-investment grade levels,” the analysts wrote.

Still, the $16B financing deal represents a landmark transaction for Related Digital. It would be the largest-ever project for the venture, which launched in March 2025. Related’s data center arm has a pipeline of more than 5 GW in the U.S. and Canada and is expected to deliver its first project — a 64-megawatt data center expansion in Ontario — this summer.

The firm is also planning 1.2 GW in Missouri, 1 GW in Illinois and 250 MW in Wyoming, in addition to a Chicago development for PsiQuantum that is set to host the world’s largest quantum computer.