Fermi's massive 11 GW energy and data center project in Texas, called Project Matador, which the company has envisioned to be the world's largest AI data center and energy campus in the Texas Panhandle, near Amarillo, is struggling to close the deal with its first major data center tenant. And since Fermi is set up as REIT that allocates income from tenants to shareholders, the delay may raise doubts about attracting other potential money-generating tenants, in a toxic feedback loop.

Fermi's Donald J. Trump campus is an array of solar, natural gas and nuclear power generation, as well as storage and 2.6 million square feet of data-center capacity. With 11 gigawatts of power, including 6 gigawatts of nuclear power and 5 gigawatts of gas-powered generation, Project Matador ranks as the "largest advanced energy and data campus in the world" to deliver next-generation AI at scale, Fermi said.

Besides the name of the plant, the company has ties to Trump through Rick Perry, a co-founder and board member. The latest filings show that Perry owned a little more than 16.5 million Fermi shares, which represented 2.5% of the shares outstanding.

Fermi CEO Toby Neugebauer said Fermi's goal is to catch up in November and regain the roughly 21-day delay in signing its first tenant with "intense" face-to-face meetings. It expects the lease to be signed in the current fourth quarter.

"I wouldn't take anything as a sign of weakness with that delay," Neugebauer told Wall Street analysts. "I would just say, you know, these are very large corporations who have multiple different stakeholders who have to sign off on everything that's agreed to. And sometimes that takes longer than the commercial guys would prefer."

It's not all bad news. The company which went public on Oct 1, said it is still on track to start generating power next year; it has also already reached some major milestones with respect to regulatory progress with the NRC, as well as securing the permitting for the initial 6 GW of gas turbine power.

Progress with the NRC has included acceptance of their initial portion of a combined license application (COLA) for four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, achieved back in early September. Fermi has since submitted additional portions of the application, and will continue to submit the remainder of the required portions over the next year. This process could be sped up considerably if required environmental pre-work is reduced due to NEPA regulation revisions. The NRC has also agreed to an 18-month review timeline after the application is fully submitted. Fermi signed a Front-End Engineering Design contract with Hyundai E&C in October, with forging of long-lead nuclear components by Doosan Enerbility now in production