Rick Perry's REIT Inks Deals For Nuclear Reactors At Texas Campus
Nascent data center developer Fermi America has signed deals to begin building four nuclear reactors at the firm’s planned Texas data center campus.
Fermi, co-founded by former Texas Gov. and U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, announced Monday that the company has inked separate deals with a pair of Korean firms to begin engineering work and manufacturing of equipment for nuclear reactors to power its proposed Project Matador data center campus in the Texas Panhandle.
The Amarillo, Texas-based REIT’s agreement with Doosan Enerbility will involve the Korean company beginning production of critical long-lead-time reactor equipment needed to build Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, the specific design Fermi plans to deploy on its proposed campus. At the same time, Fermi announced a contract with Hyundai Engineering & Construction to begin engineering work on the reactors.
Launched in January by Perry and longtime energy executive and Republican donor Toby Neugebauer, Fermi has yet to build any data centers. Still, the company went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market earlier this month, and it now has a market capitalization of close to $14B, according to Bloomberg.
Fermi’s announcement Monday coincided with President Donald Trump’s arrival in South Korea, continuing a pattern of major data center deals being unveiled in conjunction with the president’s state visits. The firm’s leadership framed the deal as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to accelerate nuclear power development to serve Big Tech’s AI data centers.
"Working with our allies, who have successfully constructed multiple large scale nuclear projects on time and on budget across the globe, is exactly the kind of expertise required for America to win this race," Neugebauer said in a statement.
Fermi’s Project Matador, slated to become the Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus, aims to be the world’s largest self-powered data center campus. The project, which the company claims will eventually scale to 11 gigawatts of capacity, will be on 5,855 acres in Carson County, just east of Amarillo, on a site owned by Texas Tech University.
From the beginning, Fermi has pitched on-site nuclear as part of the project’s energy mix alongside natural gas and solar. Part of the site’s appeal is that it neighbors a Department of Energy-operated nuclear weapons facility, meaning it is prequalified for nuclear deployment.
The idea of nuclear-powered data centers has gained traction and attracted massive investment over the past four years as developers search for alternatives to increasingly scarce grid power from utilities.
While much of this discussion has focused on small modular reactors that produce less than 300 megawatts of power each, the reactors Fermi is pursuing are utility-scale power plants, each capable of generating more than a gigawatt of electricity. At least 12 Westinghouse AP1000 reactors are already in use or in development globally, including at Georgia’s Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, the most recent nuclear facility built in the U.S.
Utility Santee Cooper is also pursuing the development of AP1000 reactors in South Carolina. Last week, the power provider announced a partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to complete the project.
