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Fermi has finally secured its first lease for Project Matador, its upcoming Texas data center campus.
Call it a silver lining from a cloud provider.
Artificial intelligence cloud provider TensorWave signed a 15-year lease at the campus, expected to generate more than $6.5B in revenue, Fermi announced Monday. The deal comes with two five-year options to renew, and TensorWave has the choice to expand into two more data centers on the campus.
The facility has 222 megawatts of power, and TensorWave will be moving into it in phases. When the project is complete, it will be able to support up to tens of thousands of AMD graphics processing units that operate and train AI.
TensorWave is valued at $1.5B and raised $350M in June. The funding round was co-led by asset manager Magnetar and AMD Ventures, the venture capital arm of AMD, which creates semiconductor and computing products.
It has been a long, hard road for Fermi, whose stock price soared 21% following the news.
From boardroom infighting to trouble securing tenants, construction stalling, shares steadily sliding since its October initial public offering, and misconduct allegations, the company with close ties to the White House has been making headlines since Project Matador was announced last September.
The REIT was co-founded at the beginning of 2025 by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Toby Neugebauer. Neugebauer is the co-founder of energy-focused private capital firm Quantum Energy Partners. Perry served as U.S. energy secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Neugebauer was ousted from the company's CEO spot and board in April, prompting a wrongful termination suit from Neugebauer in May. Fermi alleges Neugebauer was trying to take over control of the company. The proxy campaign was put on hold by Neugebauer in July.
Concerns have come up about the company struggling to secure construction equipment, a turnoff for potential tenants that want to move in quickly.
An investment-grade anchor tenant, which Neugebauer said was Amazon, was secured in November. Part of the deal included $150M in critical construction financing. But negotiations stalled, and the tenant left the deal by the end of the year. The news sent the stock plummeting 35%.
Challenges still remain for the campus. In August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an audit of data centers that want connections to the state grid. Water use, effects on surrounding communities and infrastructure costs must be included.
While the majority of Project Matador will be produced on a private grid, it is expected to use some power from the Texas grid.
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