AI nuclear power startup Fermi is in turmoil. Co-founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer and CFO Miles Everson have both abruptly departed the company, sending its shares plunging 22 percent on Monday. The sudden exits raise serious questions about the future of one of the most ambitious projects at the intersection of AI and energy infrastructure.
What Happened
Fermi announced Monday that Neugebauer has stepped down as chairman, though he remains on the board. Lead Independent Board Director Marius Haas has taken over as chairman. Everson, meanwhile, has been elected as a board director through designation rights held by a family trust.
The company attempted to frame the departures as part of a strategic evolution it is calling Fermi 2.0, which also includes plans to establish new corporate headquarters in Dallas. But the market was not convinced — the 22 percent share price drop signals deep investor concern about what is happening behind the scenes.
Project Matador in Trouble
Fermi, co-founded by former US Energy Secretary Rick Perry, is developing an AI campus in Amarillo, Texas, called Project Matador. The project's ambition is significant: building nuclear reactors specifically designed to power AI data centers, addressing the enormous energy demands that AI infrastructure requires.
But Project Matador has reportedly struggled in recent months. Bloomberg reported friction with a key customer, adding uncertainty to a project that was already facing the inherent challenges of nuclear construction — regulatory complexity, long timelines, and massive capital requirements.
Why Nuclear Matters for AI
The departure comes at a moment when the relationship between AI and energy is under intense scrutiny. AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, and the industry is scrambling to find sustainable power sources that can meet growing demand.
OpenAI's Stargate project envisions up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure investment. Meta has projected $115 to $135 billion in capital expenditure for 2026. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all racing to secure power capacity for their expanding AI operations.
Nuclear power has been positioned as a potential solution — offering consistent, carbon-free baseload power that renewables alone cannot reliably provide. Several tech companies have signed nuclear power agreements, and startups like Fermi were betting that purpose-built nuclear-powered AI campuses represented the next frontier.
The Bigger Picture
Fermi's leadership upheaval highlights the gap between AI infrastructure ambitions and execution reality. Building nuclear-powered data centers requires navigating regulatory approvals, construction timelines measured in years, and billions in upfront capital — all while the AI industry moves at a pace measured in months.
The challenges are not unique to Fermi. OpenAI recently paused its own UK data center plans over soaring energy costs and regulatory uncertainty. Wisconsin adopted a ban on new data center construction. And the broader industry is grappling with the reality that Earth's infrastructure may not be able to keep up with AI's appetite for compute and power.
Whether Fermi's Fermi 2.0 rebranding can restore investor confidence or whether the company's challenges signal deeper problems in the AI nuclear power model will become clearer in the coming months. For now, losing both a CEO and CFO simultaneously is rarely a sign that things are going according to plan.
