US data center hopeful Fermi has admitted that a data center lease with AMD-based neocloud TensorWave did not close by its October 31 deadline.. Neither party has exercised termination rights under the lease agreement, and Fermi said that it was still working with TensorWave on closing.
The company does not have any other public customers.. “Both Fermi and TensorWave remain committed to this lease, and we are continuing to work through the remaining conditions prior to close,” said Lee McIntire, Fermi CEO.. “We expect to provide more information on the discussions during our earnings call next week, or sooner if appropriate.”. The deal was announced in August, with TensorWave on the hook to lease 222MW of capacity beginning in the second half of 2027, alongside expansion rights for two additional data centers that would total 650MW..
In October, Fermi signed a credit support agreement with AMD to help fund the 222MW development.. Fermi was founded in January 2025 by former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry and Toby Neugebauer. That October, it went public at a $15 billion valuation, despite not having brought any IT live..
The company hopes to develop a massive 17GW data center and energy campus near Amarillo, Texas, on land owned by the Texas Tech University system.. Dubbed Project Matador, the campus was initially announced with planned 11GW of capacity, but Fermi increased the figure to 17GW in March 2026..
Such figures remain theoretical. In December, a proposed tenant pulled out of a $150m data center lease on the site, crashing the stock.. Fermi denied that the tenant was Amazon, despite a report from Business Insider, which said that Fermi’s CEO Neugebauer told the publication that Amazon was the tenant during a phone call..
The agreement, while worth an initial $150m, would have paid Fermi more than $20 billion over the next 20 years, according to BI, again citing the data center developer’s CEO.. In April, Neugebauer and Miles Everson, Fermi’s then CFO, departed the company.. Neugeberger’s departure was messy, with the former CEO repeatedly trying to wrestle control of the company back.
Fermi and the exec, who remains the business’ largest shareholder, have traded insults via press release.. Fermi canceled a shareholder meeting he called, and said that he was “trying to force a sale of the company at a depressed valuation.” Both Neugebauer and Fermi have filed temporary restraining orders against each other..
Former Governor Rick Perry, whom Neugebauer repeatedly donated to while he was in office, was not reelected to the Fermi board last month, The Texas Tribune reports.. Perry’s son is the company’s second largest shareholder, through Caddis Capital. In May, Griffin Perry backed Fermi against Neugebauer and said that he was trying to “seize control of the company in pursuit of a hasty and ill-advised sale.”.
Neugebauer voted against Rick Perry’s board reelection.. Fermi shares are down more than 92 percent since the IPO.. 09 Jul 2026
