Texas-based Fermi, co-founded by former US Energy Secretary Rick Perry has raised $682.5m in its US initial public offering (IPO). The company had increased the size of the offering to 32.5m shares from an initial target of 25m. The IPO valued Fermi at $12.46bn. UBS Investment Bank, Evercore ISI, Cantor and Mizuho acted as the book-running managers for the offering.
Fermi is developing a massive AI data centre campus in Amarillo Texas, which aims to deliver up to 11 GWe by 2038, powered by a combination of nuclear, natural gas and solar, with 1 GWe targeted to come online by late 2026 powered by natural gas. In September, Fermi signed a letter of intent with Siemens Energy to purchase three gas turbines to generate 1.1 gigawatts for the site.
The campus, which is being developed on some 5,000 acres of land leased from Texas Tech University, is known as Project Matador, while Fermi also refers to the site as the President Donald J Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus.
The company, founded in January, does not expect to generate revenue within the next 12 months and reported a $6.4m loss in June. The company hopes to draw data centre and hyperscaler tenants to its Texas campus. Fermi has started trading on the Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange.
Fermi co-founder & CEO Toby Neugebauer said: “We are delighted to announce our admission to trading on the Main Market today. The exchange is a natural fit for Fermi, given we are a global company with global partners, suppliers, and team members. With the exchange providing access to deep pools of international capital as well as investors who share our long-term vision, we look forward to working together to secure the future of AI. We are humbled and pleased with the strong investor demand in both the New York and London IPOs, and are already back to work, delivering long-term value for all of our stakeholders.”
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Rick Perry owns Fermi shares worth about $540m while his son, Griffin Perry, independently owns a $2.4bn stake. Neugebauer’s stake is worth more than $4.5bn including shares held by his wife Melissa and his father, former Texas congressional representative Randy Neugebauer. Steven Meisel, co-founder and managing partner of Dallas-based private equity firm FG1 Capital, has a stake of $1.8bn.
