Good morning. In October, Fortune reported that former U.S. energy secretary and Texas governor Rick Perry’s AI power startup Fermi “went from nonexistent to an October IPO with a mammoth $16 billion market cap in less than a year without any announced customers or construction—or even a single dollar of revenue.” Now they are without a CEO or CFO as well.
Fermi is developing an AI campus in Amarillo, Texas, powered by nuclear reactors. The company said Monday that its “Fermi 2.0” strategy includes leadership changes. Toby Neugebauer stepped down as CEO on April 17 but remains on the board, according to an SEC filing.
The company’s IPO last year was quickly followed by a steep decline in the stock market as it lost its first planned hyperscaler customer, Fortune’s Jordan Blum reports. An unnamed Fermi tenant canceled a $150 million deal for the data center campus in December. Fermi had planned to secure an anchor tenant by March, which has yet to happen, according to Blum.
Fermi’s market cap has fallen from nearly $20 billion in October down to $3.4 billion as of Monday, including a nearly 18% dip on the news of the leadership changes. The board created an Interim Office of the CEO, including COO Jacobo Ortiz and board observer Anna Bofa, and launched a formal CEO search with Heidrick & Struggles. Some analysts think Neugebauer’s “surprising” departure could prove to be a positive for the company. You can read more here.
