Fermi co-founder exits as Texas AI campus struggles to secure tenants

Fermi’s latest leadership shake-up has sharpened doubts about whether its Texas AI-and-nuclear ambition is running ahead of its financing and tenant base. Co-founder and Chief Executive Toby Neugebauer departed, the company disclosed in an April 17 SEC filing, and the stock was knocked lower again after the news, after an earlier post-market slide of as much as 31% and a Monday drop of about 22% when both the CEO and CFO had left.

The Amarillo-based company responded by reshuffling its board and management structure. In an April 19 filing, Fermi appointed Jeffrey S. Stein to the board and named Miles Everson to a class III board seat. The company also set up an interim Office of the CEO that includes Chief Operating Officer Jacobo Ortiz and board observer Anna Bofa while it searches for a permanent replacement. Fermi’s principal executive offices are at 620 S. Taylor St., Suite 301, in Amarillo, and its shares trade under the symbol FRMI on both Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange.

The turnover lands at a delicate moment for Project Matador, Fermi’s planned 11-gigawatt campus in Amarillo. In a December 12 filing, the company said it had signed a non-binding letter of intent on September 19, 2025, with an investment-grade-rated tenant for part of the site, but the exclusivity period expired at midnight on December 9. Fermi said the tenant had agreed, subject to conditions, to advance up to $150 million for construction costs under an advance-in-aid-of-construction agreement, yet no funds had been drawn by the filing date. Fermi said it then began talks with several other potential tenants for power delivery in 2026.

Those details matter because the business model depends on proving that large AI customers will commit enough capital to support an unprecedented power buildout. Fermi has said it ultimately envisions four Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors powering the site, a plan that would demand years of permitting, construction and financing before it can deliver material electricity at scale. The company’s March 30 shareholder letter covered results from its inception on January 10, 2025 through December 31, 2025, underscoring how early the project still is.

Fermi had previously targeted a valuation of up to $13.16 billion in its U.S. IPO and planned to raise as much as $550 million by offering 25 million shares priced between $18 and $22. With the first tenant arrangement stalled, the capital needs still heavy and top executives now gone, the company’s political star power has run into the harder math of securing customers, permits and construction money.