Trump-Backed Data Center Overheats, Ex-CEO Had No Idea Cooling Was Hard
KEY POINTS
- â˘Fermi America, co-founded by Rick Perry and his son Griffin, announced its massive Project Matador in June 2025 with lofty energy goals.
- â˘CEO Toby Neugebarger suddenly resigned on April 17, admitting he underestimated how complex cooling 17 gigawatts of AI chips would be.
- â˘Construction waits on securing an anchor tenant as Griffin Perry sold 15% of his shares amid falling stock and a class-action suit.
Fermi America, co-founded by ex-Energy Secretary Rick Perry and his son Griffin Perry, unveiled its half-Manhattan-sized AI data center, nicknamed Project Matador, in June 2025 only to hit the brakes hard by 2026. CEO Toby Neugebarger abruptly quit April 17, confessing he was 'naive' about cooling systemsâa tech so essential, they forgot the giant ice cubes. The project demands 17 GW, triple NYC's power, fueled by natural gas, nuclear, and sun, yet canât lock down a tenant to build the cooling system. Griffin sold 11 million sharesâa 15% sliceâjust as the stock tanked 75% in 6 months and a class-action lawsuit appeared. The campusâs first buildings might now arrive only in mid-2027, fashionably late to the AI party.
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(1 of 3)When your worldâs biggest AI data center canât find a tenant or figure out cooling, maybe building it near the Texas Panhandle was the ultimate test of how hot ideas crash and burn.
Fermiâs cooling problem sounds like my dating life: knows itâs needed but has zero idea how to start.
A data center so big it needs triple NYC's power but can't find a tenantâplot twist: AI taking over real estate.
Source: Axios | Published: 4/19/2026 | Author: Amy Harder
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