A Battered AI Power Company Just Landed a $6.5 Billion Deal — Here's What It Means
Fermi Inc., a company that trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker FRMI, has signed a $6.5 billion lease with an AI cloud company called TensorWave. The lease covers part of a giant data center and power complex Fermi is building in Amarillo, Texas. It is the company's first big real customer deal after months of leadership drama and a sharp drop in its share price. The lease was reported on August 10. Two days later, on August 12, 2026, Fermi named Lee McIntire as its new CEO, ending a temporary leadership arrangement that started when the board fired co-founder and former chief executive Toby Neugebauer in late April. ABC7 Amarillo TechCrunch
McIntire was already on Fermi's board and previously ran CH2M Hill, a large engineering and construction firm. He takes over a company whose life as a publicly traded stock has been rough. Fermi sold its first shares to the public — a process called an IPO, or initial public offering — in early October 2025, with a total value of $15 billion. That debut came during a wave of excitement among investors about companies building infrastructure for artificial intelligence. E&E News Texas Standard Reuters
Fermi was co-founded by Rick Perry, who served as US Energy Secretary, and Neugebauer. The company's plan is to build four large nuclear reactors in the Texas Panhandle to generate electricity for AI data centers. The estimated cost: about $17 billion. The site was originally supposed to run on natural gas, with nuclear as a later step. Fermi had said construction of what it called the world's largest data center would begin by the end of 2025. Bloomberg The Washington Post
The trouble started on April 17, 2026, when Fermi's board set up a temporary team to run the company, including Chief Operating Officer Jacobo Ortiz. Two days later, on April 19, the board added Jeffrey S. Stein as a new director. Then, over the following days, Fermi said it had fired Neugebauer "for cause" — a legal term meaning the company believed he had done something that violated his contract or company rules. The stock fell nearly 20% on that news. Before that, shares had already dropped about 72% from their starting price when the company went public. Perry, who sits on the board, was part of the group that removed the CEO. SEC Filing (April 17) SEC Filing (April 19) Bloomberg WSJ
The big lease and the new CEO come as Fermi tries to prove it can actually build something, not just survive boardroom drama. The lease gives Fermi a committed customer for its Amarillo site. The question for anyone watching the company is simple: can a firm that started at a $15 billion stock value, then lost about 80% of that, changed CEOs twice, and is trying to pull off one of the most expensive energy-and-computing projects ever attempted in the US — can it turn a signed lease and a new boss into actual progress and revenue?
The sheer size of the plan is the central fact. Four nuclear reactors, a natural gas backup, and a data center billed as the world's largest, all in the Texas Panhandle, add up to a financial and construction challenge few companies have tried. The $6.5 billion from TensorWave shows a customer wants the space. The $17 billion nuclear construction bill is what it will cost to deliver it. The gap between those two numbers — and whether Fermi can close it by selling more shares, borrowing money, or getting federal loans — will determine whether the Amarillo project becomes real or stays on paper.
The broader context here is that Fermi now has a CEO who knows how to build large infrastructure, a major customer, and a board willing to make tough calls quickly. It also carries the scars of a stock that has fallen hard and a track record defined more by disruption than by delivery.
