Federal subpoena lands on Fermi's 17-GW data center project

Fermi said in its quarterly report that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has subpoenaed records on its 17-gigawatt Project Matador data center campus in the Texas Panhandle, along with documents tied to 'certain former members of management.' The SEC has issued a separate voluntary production request on the same subject. The company says it is cooperating, that both requests are broad, and that neither contains allegations of wrongdoing. Bisnow first reported the filing.

Project Matador would be a power plant as much as a data center. Its plans call for more than 18 million square feet of buildings. On-site nuclear, gas, and solar generation could power at least 15 states at peak, according to Politico. Earlier this month, Fermi announced a 15-year lease with AI cloud provider TensorWave. The company says the deal will generate $6.5 billion in revenue and support AMD graphics processing units. Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who served as energy secretary under President Trump, is a Fermi co-founder.

Fermi's short life has featured repeated stumbles. The company launched in June 2025. It went public less than six months later. The offering raised $682 million. Fermi had promised its first million square feet would be operational that month. It was not. In April, the board ousted co-founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer, who is suing and says only shareholders can dismiss him under Texas law. In December, an unnamed tenant's departure stripped $150 million in construction funding and forced the company to warn about its ability to keep operating. By the second quarter, Fermi's cash totaled just over $62,000. Restricted cash was about $30,000. The balance sheet also held $431,000 in convertible notes due 2031. Fermi says those resources are not sufficient to cover its forecasted disbursements.

The subpoena adds a legal layer on top of a delivery problem. Investors underwriting the AI data center boom have been asked to accept long buildouts; Matador is a reminder of what can go wrong in the meanwhile. Its promised 17 gigawatts were supposed to be backed by a $6.5 billion lease. A $150 million construction commitment had already fallen away. Fermi's unrestricted cash was just over $62,000. That gap now carries a docket number.