Panhandle Nuclear AI Project Stalls, CEO Fired: Texas Brief

Nuclear AI Startup Fermi Stalls, Ousts CEO

Toby Neugebauer’s pitch for Fermi ticked a lot of boxes—artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, political connections. The brash entrepreneur promised data-center developers open land and ample power. The company leased a more than 5,000-acre site in the Texas Panhandle where it planned to build power plants generating 17 gigawatts of electricity, allowing hyperscalers to install data centers there and tap directly into that power.

But after months of negotiations failed to secure a single client, Fermi’s board fired Neugebauer as CEO. The company also said in a filing that he was terminated for ...