Fermi's data center lease with TensorWave missed its closing deadline, though Fermi says both companies remain committed to the lease.
US data center hopeful Fermi has admitted that a data center lease with AMD-based neocloud TensorWave did not close by its October 31 deadline.
Neither party has exercised termination rights under the lease agreement, and Fermi said it is still working with TensorWave toward closing. The company does not have any other public customers.
"Both Fermi and TensorWave remain committed to this lease, and we are continuing to work through the remaining conditions prior to close," said Lee McIntire, Fermi CEO.
"We expect to provide more information on the discussions during our earnings call next week, or sooner if appropriate."
The deal was announced in August. TensorWave agreed to lease 222MW of capacity beginning in the second half of 2027, with expansion rights for two additional data centers that would bring the total to 650MW.
In October, Fermi signed a credit support agreement with AMD to help fund the 222MW development.
Fermi was founded in January 2025 by former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry and Toby Neugebauer. That October, the company went public at a $15 billion valuation, despite not having brought any IT capacity live.
The company hopes to develop a massive 17GW data center and energy campus near Amarillo, Texas, on land owned by the Texas Tech University System.
Dubbed Project Matador, the campus was initially announced with planned capacity of 11GW, but Fermi increased the figure to 17GW in March 2026.
Such figures remain theoretical. In December, a proposed tenant pulled out of a $150m data center lease on the site, sending the stock into a steep decline.
Fermi denied that the tenant was Amazon, despite a report from Business Insider, which said that Fermi CEO Neugebauer told the publication during a phone call that Amazon was the tenant.
The agreement, while worth an initial $150m, would have paid Fermi more than $20 billion over the next 20 years, according to BI, which again cited the developer's CEO.
In April, Neugebauer and Miles Everson, Fermi's then CFO, departed the company.
Neugebauer's departure was messy, with the former CEO repeatedly trying to wrest control of the company back. Fermi and the executive, who remains the company's largest shareholder, have traded insults via press release.
Fermi canceled a shareholder meeting Neugebauer had called, and said he was "trying to force a sale of the company at a depressed valuation." Both Neugebauer and Fermi have filed temporary restraining orders against each other.
Former Governor Rick Perry, whom Neugebauer repeatedly donated to while Perry was in office, was not reelected to the Fermi board last month, according to The Texas Tribune.
Perry's son is the company's second-largest shareholder, through Caddis Capital. In May, Griffin Perry backed Fermi against Neugebauer and said Neugebauer was trying to "seize control of the company in pursuit of a hasty and ill-advised sale."
Neugebauer voted against Rick Perry's board reelection.
Fermi shares are down more than 92 percent since the IPO.