CEO and CFO of Fermi America step down

On Friday, two of the four cofounders at Fermi America unexpectedly exited their roles at the company. Those were Toby Neugebauer, former CEO and chairman of the board of directors, and Miles Everson, former chief financial officer.

While both Neugebauer and Everson will still serve on the board of directors, this reshuffling has raised questions regarding the overall stability of Fermi's flagship Project Matador, which aims to deploy four AP1000s on a massive data center campus in Texas.

The details: In a press release announcing these changes, Fermi said it is now entering "a new chapter" the company is calling "Fermi 2.0," which will represent a "transition from start-up to scaled enterprise."

Independent board director Marius Haas has replaced Neugebauer as chairman of the board. Jacob Ortiz Blanes, previously Fermi's chief operating officer, and Anna Bofa, previously a board advisor, have been appointed co-presidents in the newly created Office of the CEO to take over Neugebauer's former duties as CEO. Fermi has initiated a formal search for the company's next CEO.

No explanation was offered by Fermi America in its press release or in recent SEC filings as to why Neugebauer and Everson left their roles.

As part of its "Fermi 2.0" initiative, the company announced a number of new plans in its press release:

• Deepening its relationships with academic and community partners, including the Texas Tech University System.
• Establishing new headquarters in Dallas.
• Attracting new investors and tenants for Project Matador.

The background: Fermi America launched last year with a vision to build "the world's largest advanced energy and artificial intelligence campus"-5,769 acres powered by 11 gigawatts coming from a mix of solar, natural gas, four AP1000s, and as-yet undecided small reactor generation. The site of this campus (which is being developed in partnership with the Texas Tech University System) is adjacent to the Department of Energy's Pantex nuclear weapons plant in Amarillo, Texas. The company aims to deploy AP1000s in 2032, 2034, 2035, and 2036.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepted the first two parts of Fermi's combined license application for the AP1000s in September. That same month, the company signed a letter of intent with a prospective data center tenant who later agreed to provide $150 million in construction cost funding. Fermi began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in October. In December, the prospective tenant retracted its $150 million funding commitment.

While Fermi previously claimed that it would have 1 GW on line by the end of 2026, it is not currently clear whether these new developments will delay that timeline. In February, the company announced that it had received the first of six SGT-800 natural gas turbines ordered from Siemens Energy. Those six turbines are to provide about one-third of the planned first gigawatt.

Now on a search to replace two executives, Fermi and its partners are maintaining that the future looks bright, with Texas Tech University System chancellor Brandon Creighton saying, ""TTUS remains firmly committed to our partnership with Fermi America and to the long-term opportunity this project represents for our region, our state, and the nation. Building on that progress, we are actively engaged in good-faith discussions to extend certain milestones in the lease agreement as we advance Project Matador into its next phase."