Fermi Inc Shares Jump 22% On First Binding Lease At AI Power Campus Worth $6.5 Billion

Shares of Fermi Inc. surged Tuesday after the energy infrastructure company announced its first binding customer lease at its flagship Project Matador campus in Texas, marking a major commercial milestone for the company's push to build large-scale power infrastructure for artificial intelligence data centers.

The stock closed up 21.68% at $7.16, on volume of nearly 19.9 million shares, roughly in line with its three-month average of about 19 million shares, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately $4.55 billion. Shares had surged even more sharply in after-hours trading Monday, jumping as much as 35% immediately following the announcement, before settling into Tuesday's more moderate, though still substantial, gain.

Fermi, also known as Fermi America, announced Monday that it had signed a 15-year turnkey data-center lease with TensorWave, an artificial intelligence cloud provider, covering a facility backed by 222 megawatts of power at the company's Project Matador campus in Carson County, Texas. Once complete, the site is expected to house tens of thousands of next-generation AMD Instinct graphics processing units used for large-scale AI training and inference workloads. The agreement is projected to generate approximately $6.5 billion in contracted revenue over its initial term, with delivery of the first phase set to begin in the second half of 2027.

The lease represents Fermi's first binding commercial agreement since the company began developing Project Matador, which it has positioned as one of the largest privately developed power campuses designed specifically to support artificial intelligence infrastructure. Fermi said it is continuing discussions with other potential hyperscale and enterprise customers as it works to fill out additional capacity at the site.

Tuesday's rally follows a volatile stretch for Fermi shares over the past several months. The stock has traded between $4.47 and $36.99 over the past 52 weeks, reflecting sharp swings tied to a combination of company-specific developments, including leadership turmoil, securities litigation and financing activity. In July, the company priced an upsized $375 million offering of convertible senior notes, a move that initially pressured the stock, with shares falling as much as 16.8% in the aftermath before stabilizing.

The company has also navigated a leadership transition in recent months. Fermi operated without a permanent chief executive for a stretch after the removal of former chief executive Toby Neugebauer, with interim co-CEOs Jacobo Ortiz and Anna Bofa overseeing operations during the transition period. The company has since strengthened its executive team with additional key appointments, according to recent company disclosures, as it works to stabilize leadership heading into a critical commercial phase for Project Matador.

Fermi has also faced legal challenges tied to its rapid rise as a public company. Multiple securities class action lawsuits have been filed against the company, alleging misstatements in its registration statement tied to its stock offering, with some suits specifically pointing to the loss of a previous anchor tenant that had agreed to a $150 million agreement before pulling out, a development that had previously sent shares tumbling by roughly a third in a single session earlier this year.

Despite that turbulence, institutional investors have shown growing interest in the company's long-term prospects tied to the broader boom in artificial intelligence infrastructure spending. According to data compiled by Insider Monkey, 51 hedge funds held positions in Fermi as of the end of the first quarter, up from 40 funds in the prior quarter, with collective institutional holdings rising to $165.6 million from $160 million over the same period.

Ahead of Monday's lease announcement, Fermi had already seen its shares climb nearly 20% the previous Friday, as investors cheered ramped-up development activity at Project Matador and positioned ahead of the company's upcoming quarterly results. Fermi is scheduled to release its second-quarter 2026 earnings on August 13, before markets open, with a conference call to follow. Investors are expected to focus closely on the company's broader business outlook for the remainder of the year, along with any further updates on additional tenant leases or partnerships tied to the Project Matador campus.

In support of the campus's development, Fermi has also previously secured a power supply agreement with Southwestern Public Service Company, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, covering delivery of up to 200 megawatts of power capacity to the site, underscoring the scale of energy infrastructure the company is assembling to support its data-center ambitions.

With the TensorWave lease now serving as proof of concept for Fermi's broader commercial strategy, analysts and investors are likely to watch closely for signs that the company can convert its ongoing discussions with other hyperscale and enterprise prospects into additional binding agreements in the months ahead, particularly given the scale of capital the company has raised and deployed toward building out Project Matador's power infrastructure.