Fermi Q1 Earnings Call Highlights
Fermi (NASDAQ:FRMI) executives used the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call to outline a reset of its leadership structure, reaffirm the commercial rationale for its Project Matador power campus and detail a 90-day operating plan centered on signing a binding tenant agreement.
Chairman Marius Haas said the company is at “a meaningful inflection point” as it moves into what management called “Fermi 2.0,” a shift from an entrepreneurial operating model toward what he described as the institutional framework needed to scale the business. Fermi is developing Project Matador, a large private power campus aimed at serving hyperscale compute infrastructure for artificial intelligence demand.
Haas said the market environment continues to support the company’s strategy, arguing that power availability has become a primary constraint for AI infrastructure development. He said delays in announced projects globally are being driven by grid interconnection timelines and equipment availability.
Leadership Changes and Governance Reset
Haas directly addressed the company’s recent leadership changes, saying the board removed Toby Neugebauer from the roles of president, chief executive officer and director, and that he was “terminated for cause.” Haas said the decision was unanimous among the directors involved and followed a process that included independent counsel.
Haas said the board concluded Fermi needed different leadership as it pursues multi-billion-dollar contracts with investment-grade counterparties and prepares for commercial operations.
The company has expanded its board from five to seven directors, adding Miles Everson, Larry Kellerman and Jeffrey S. Stein. Haas said Everson, the company’s former CFO, “knows the company inside and out,” while Kellerman brings more than 40 years of experience in power generation asset portfolios and currently serves as head of power. Stein was described as an experienced chief executive and chairman with a background in scaling industrial enterprises.
Fermi has engaged Heidrick Struggles to lead the search for a permanent CEO. Haas said the company already has a preliminary slate of qualified candidates and is seeking a leader with experience running complex companies, relationships with hyperscalers and project financing expertise.
The company also named Robert L. Masson interim chief financial officer and established a new corporate headquarters in Dallas, in addition to maintaining an on-site presence in Amarillo, Texas.
Commercial Discussions Center on Binding Tenant Agreement
Co-President Anna Bofa said the company’s commercial discussions have strengthened since the leadership changes, with prospective tenants and strategic partners visiting the Project Matador site over the past two weeks. She said customers and partners continue to view the project as one of the most advanced and customer-ready large-scale power campuses they have evaluated.
Bofa said conversations with hyperscalers, neo-cloud providers and enterprise compute operators are becoming more specific, including discussions around capacity planning, delivery sequencing, power availability, reliability, operating structure and commercial frameworks.
“Demand remains strong,” Bofa said. “The asset is being validated directly by the market.”
During the question-and-answer session, Haas said investors should measure the company over the next 90 days on five priorities:
- Securing a binding tenant agreement;
- Maintaining capital discipline to support liquidity;
- Hiring the next CEO;
- Delivering power at the project site;
- Exploring strategic partnerships to accelerate data center and power deployment.
Haas added that the company’s commercial pipeline had increased “exponentially” over the prior three weeks. Bofa said potential tenant arrangements under discussion range from “a couple hundred megawatts” to “1 gig or more,” depending on the counterparty and structure.
Management also said it is evaluating partnerships with data center operators, infrastructure partners and power partners. Haas said data center partners are approaching Fermi because they have demand tied to power availability and are looking for ways to satisfy that demand.
Project Matador Construction and Permitting Progress
Co-President Jacobo Blanes said construction continued during the quarter. He said the company has installed more than 11 miles of perimeter fencing, nearly 5 miles of high-pressure gas pipeline and 7 miles of water distribution lines capable of providing 2.5 million gallons per day. Fermi has also built a 2 million-gallon water storage tank, secured additional water rights and brought 86 megawatts of power from Xcel Energy to the site.
Blanes said three GE 6B frame turbines are undergoing refurbishment in Houston and are expected to be completed by the middle of next month. Siemens SGT-800 generator sets have arrived in Houston and cleared customs, while S-class turbines representing 1.1 gigawatts of combined cycle capacity are scheduled for delivery in the third quarter.
Including six additional Siemens SGT-800 turbines scheduled for delivery in 2028, Blanes said Fermi has roughly 2.2 gigawatts of natural gas generation equipment. He said the company expects it could deliver 1.5 gigawatts of installed power by the end of 2027 in simple cycle, provided it has a tenant and project financing.
Bofa said Fermi received a clean air permit for 6 gigawatts in February, calling it the second-largest permit of its kind in the U.S. She said the company filed in late March for an additional 5-gigawatt gas permit. Blanes said the company expects that additional permit to be completed successfully by the fourth quarter of this year.
On nuclear development, Bofa said Fermi has a front-end engineering and design agreement with Hyundai Engineering Construction covering site layout and civil cost estimates. She also said Doosan Enerbility has begun preparation of forging dies for reactor pressure vessels, and that Fermi is the first private company admitted to the NRC’s Accelerated National Environmental Policy Act pilot program.
Quarterly Results and Liquidity
Interim CFO Rob Masson said Fermi reported a first-quarter net loss of $189 million, with about 70% of the loss non-cash and driven mainly by share-based compensation tied to the company’s employee equity program. The company also recorded a $25 million loss on the retirement of the Macquarie term loan.
Cash used in operating activities totaled about $7 million, helped by a $22 million working capital benefit. Masson said that without the benefit, cash use would have been approximately $29 million.
Fermi invested $441 million in property, plant and equipment during the quarter, bringing cumulative investment in Project Matador to more than $1.4 billion. Masson said the spending was primarily allocated to natural gas power generation and turbine procurement, with additional investment in site infrastructure, substation equipment, electrical interconnection and early nuclear pre-development.
The company ended the quarter with $243 million in total cash. Masson said Fermi fully repaid the Macquarie term loan and replaced about $150 million of high-cost debt with more favorable equipment financing. He said Fermi has $785 million of new equipment financing facilities, including $500 million from MUFG, structured as non-recourse debt secured by generation equipment.
Fermi also secured more than $156 million of financing from Yorkville in late March to support general corporate expenditures, though Masson said the company has not drawn on that facility.
Looking ahead, Masson said Fermi expects to fund the next phase of Project Matador through a combination of tenant prepayments, additional non-recourse equipment financing, project-level non-recourse debt and government programs, including the Office of Energy Dominance Financing.
Haas closed the call by saying Fermi’s focus remains on converting its infrastructure investment into long-term shareholder value. He said the company has seen strong receptivity from prospective tenants, suppliers, partners, government officials and employees following the leadership changes.
About Fermi (NASDAQ:FRMI)
Fermi's mission is to power the artificial intelligence (“AI”) needs of tomorrow. We are an advanced energy and hyperscaler development company purpose-built for the AI era. Our mission is to deliver up to 11 gigawatts (“GW”) of low-carbon, HyperRedundant™, and on-demand power directly to the world's most compute-intensive businesses with 1.1 GW of power projected to be online by the end of 2026. We have entered into a long-term lease on a site large enough to simultaneously house the next three largest data center campuses by square footage currently in existence.
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