Despite being under a year old and having no revenue, Fermi America had a very successful initial public offering (IPO) this week.
The company, which aims to provide data and power centers for artificial intelligence, saw its shares (Nasdaq: FRMI) close at $32.53 on their first day of trading Wednesday, up nearly 55% from their IPO price of $21 per share.
Fermi’s stock price continued to rise through after-hours and into premarket trading on Thursday, reaching $36. It reached a high of $39 per share overnight, before dropping closer to $37 ahead of the market opening.
What is Fermi?
The company was cofounded by Rick Perry, former Texas governor, a GOP presidential contender in 2012 and 2016, and U.S. Secretary of Energy for part of President Trump’s first term. His cofounder, Toby Neugebauer, is a former co-managing partner at Quantum Energy.
Since its founding in January 2025—yes, nine months ago—Fermi has done very little show and much more tell. It’s working on something called Project Matador, “a multi-gigawatt energy and data center development campus” that would be the world’s largest “HyperGrid.”
In its final form, the center would exist as the Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus at Texas Tech University.
According to Fermi, it would be “the only site with the potential to include safe, clean, new nuclear power, the nation’s biggest combined-cycle natural gas project, utility grid power, solar power, and battery energy storage at unprecedented scale.”
Fermi aims to deliver up to 11 gigawatts of power to AI data centers by 2038, with 1.1 gigawatts online at the end of 2026.
With that said, all Fermi currently has is a lease for 5,236 acres of land from Texas Tech University and a dream. It needs funding to start any construction on Project Matador, some of which could come from its successful IPO.
So why has Fermi had such a prosperous IPO, despite being little more than a newborn idea? One theory is that investors see an uncertain startup as a lower cost to entry for investing in the AI boom, which is expected to require enormous power and data in the years ahead.
The share prices for big AI players like Meta Platforms and Oracle Corp were $717.34 and $289.01, respectively, at close on Wednesday. That’s a lot less accessible than $20 or $30, which can still make someone feel included in the buzz.