Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Fermi's Anchor Tenant Walked in December. Everything Else Followed.

Fermi America's anchor tenant walked in December, the CEO and CFO followed this month, and Cleanview's satellite imagery confirms zero construction at Project Matador while the stock sits 69% below its October IPO. Developers who lock tenants before announcements, and who control their own generation and water offsets, are picking up the ground Fermi just ceded.

Today's Lead

Fermi America's leadership collapse is the day's defining story. CEO Toby Neugebauer and CFO Miles Everson both exited within days, the stock has shed 69% since its October IPO, and satellite analysis from Cleanview shows no construction has begun on Project Matador near Amarillo.

The company lost a $150 million anchor tenant deal in December, disclosed a $486 million net loss on its March 30 earnings call, and now faces a class action alleging it misled investors on demand. Interim co-presidents Jacobo Ortiz Blanes and Anna Bofa run operations while Heidrick & Struggles searches for a permanent CEO. The lesson for the rest of the field: secure tenants first, announce second.

[1]·[2]·[3]

Power

Texas demand curve goes vertical, and gas proximity rewrites the map.

Peak Texas demand jumps from 85.5 GW today to 218 GW by 2031, according to Framatome CEO Tony Robinson at TCU's Ralph Lowe Energy Institute. Data centers already hit 7% of US electricity demand in 2025, a year ahead of IEA projections, and will consume roughly 10% of all Texas power by decade's end. CBRE's Chris Herrmann says gas pipeline proximity flipped from dealbreaker to prerequisite in Dallas site selection, and Meta's $10B El Paso campus is funding a $473 million, 366 MW El Paso Electric gas plant at McCloud to self-supply.

Developers who control their own generation, whether gas, nuclear at Comanche Peak (Amazon/Vistra), or molten salt at Abilene (Natura Resources, $240M), will outpace those still waiting on interconnection. The real constraint isn't money or generation. It's transmission and supply chain: Foley & Lardner's Texas roundtable noted 60% of data center builds are running at least three months behind schedule.

[4]·[5]·[6]·[7]·[8]

Water

Cooling tech and offset pledges become the permitting story.

Meta's El Paso campus pledges to return 200% of consumed water to local watersheds, a closed-loop liquid-cooled system that draws zero water on days below 86°F, with peak demand up to 1.5 million gallons daily above 115°F. The methodology isn't spelled out. Accelsius launched its NeuCool IR150 at Data Center World 2026, a 150kW two-phase liquid cooling unit using dielectric refrigerant, no water in the rack, with Jacobs Engineering citing 35-44% annual OpEx savings versus single-phase.

The developers who specify cooling architecture and water offset mechanics upfront will clear permits in water-stressed geographies faster than those relying on abstract sustainability pledges. El Paso Water will verify Meta's 400,000-gallon baseline once operations begin. That verification sets the template.

[6]·[9]

Politics

Community process failures and political entanglements surface in parallel.

Temple's city council approved a third Rowan Digital Infrastructure datacenter 4-0 with one abstention, and organizer Carly Byrd is now gathering signatures for a recall. The complaint isn't the datacenter itself, it's opacity on water and utility terms still under negotiation. Separately, NOTUS reported stock trades by Reps. Cisneros, Bresnahan, and Khanna (the last between $84,000 and $385,000 across Oracle, Equinix, Digital Realty, and American Tower in 2025) alongside gubernatorial candidate Chip Keating's VTX Communications stake tied to Laredo property.

Rowan can still get ahead of this by publishing the water agreement and hosting its own community meeting. And developers who keep arm's length from elected officials' personal portfolios will weather political cycles better than those whose projects become exhibits in somebody else's ethics story.

[10]·[11]

Sources we cited

11 articles across 11 publishers · 329 reviewed today

[1]Houston Chronicle
Texas data center company Fermi America loses its top leaders. What now?
Apr 20, 2026·Rick Perry addresses the crowd during a Dade Phelan campaign rally at Jack Brooks Airport on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. Fermi America, the sp…
[2]Dallas News
Fermi sinks as CEO exits, putting data center ambitions in doubt
Apr 20, 2026·Fermi Inc. plunged more than 20% Monday after a management shakeup that included the abrupt departure of its chief executive officer, potent…
[3]Amarillo Globe-News
Fermi America sees major shakeup as Texas Panhandle AI site advances - Amarillo Globe-News
Apr 20, 2026·Fermi America, the company behind a massive hypergrid and data center project under construction near Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, saw m…
[4]KERA News
Demand tsunami: Energy leaders foresee exponential need as Texas economy expands
Apr 20, 2026·Could nuclear energy be key to Texas data center boom? Driven by economic growth, data centers and an increasingly urban population, indust…
[5]Bisnow
Oil And Gas Hubs Are The New Centers Of Gravity For Data Centers
Apr 20, 2026·Natural gas is emerging as a driving force behind the redrawing of the U.S. data center map. An industry that was once tightly clustered in…
[6]MySA
Meta bets $10B on Texas for massive AI hub. Here's where
Apr 21, 2026·An artistic rendering depicts what a portion of a $10 billion data center campus being built by Facebook and Instagram parent company, Meta,…
[7]thedeepdive.ca
US Data Centers Now Consume 7% of Total National Power Demand as AI Buildout Rewires the Grid
Apr 21, 2026·US data centers now account for roughly 7% of the country’s total electricity demand — a milestone the International Energy Agency confirmed…
[8]Foley & Lardner
Texas Navigates Grid Reliability, Data Center Expansion, and Capital Investment Amid Rapid Energy Transformation
Apr 20, 2026·Texas has long occupied a unique place in the U.S. energy economy. It is the nation’s largest producer of oil and gas, the leading state for…
[9]Bastille Post
Accelsius Announces General Availability of NeuCool® IR150 and Launches NeuCool HyperStart Program at Data Center World 2026
Apr 20, 2026·WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 20, 2026-- Accelsius, the leader in two-phase, direct-to-chip liquid cooling technology for AI and high-pe…
[10]KCEN
Temple residents push recall effort after city moves forward on third data center
Apr 20, 2026·To stream 6 News on your phone, you need the 6 News app. Example video title will go here for this video Example video title will go here …
[11]NOTUS
Politicians’ Investments in Data Centers Could Add Up to a Political Liability
Apr 20, 2026·Some voters hate data centers. Some places want to ban them. Some candidates and lawmakers are funding them. April 20, 2026 …

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