The stock price has soared! Fermi (FRMI.US) secures first $6.5 billion AI data center lease to lock in 15-year contract

The Zhitong Finance App learned that in the AI infrastructure power competition, a Texas real estate investment trust fund was successfully targeting the first heavyweight tenant with its scarce ability to “land the land first, get electricity first, and get a license first.” On August 10, Fermi Inc. (FRMI.US), which focuses on AI hyperscale data center development, announced that its Project Matador campus in Carson County, Texas has signed the first binding customer lease with AI cloud provider TensorWave. Boosted by this news, Fermi's stock price surged 20% during Monday night trading.

Deal details: $6.5 billion locked in for 15 years, starting at 222 MW, expandable to 650 MW

According to a statement issued by Fermi, the lease was signed between Fermi's subsidiary Fermi Campus 1 LLC and TensorWave TEX1, LLC, a subsidiary of TensorWave. The first phase covers a facility supported by a total power capacity of 222 megawatts and is expected to generate total contract revenue of approximately $6.5 billion over an initial period of 15 years. The lease comes with the right to expand two additional data centers, and if fully exercised, the cooperation between the two parties will expand to over 650 MW in three phases.

The facility is expected to begin phased delivery in the second half of 2027. Once fully delivered, it is expected to support tens of thousands of next-generation AMD Instinct GPUs for large-scale AI training and inference. The lease also includes two five-year renewal options each, with potential extensions of up to 25 years.

Fermi Chairman Marius Haas said: “A lease of this size and duration is a huge vote of confidence in Fermi. In delivering this first binding agreement, we achieved the most important goal promised to the market in May.”

TensorWave: AI Cloud Rookie in the AMD Ecosystem

TensorWave, the tenant of this lease, is an AI cloud provider headquartered in Las Vegas that operates one of the world's largest all-AMD GPU clouds. The company completed Series B financing of US$350 million co-led by AMD Ventures and Magnetar Capital in June 2026, with a valuation of US$1.55 billion.

TensorWave currently operates three data centers in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Florida. It has locked in over 2 gigawatts of long-term data center capacity and has signed leases for a total capacity of 500 megawatts. Company CEO Darrick Horton said, “Our customers require hundreds of thousands of AMD Instinct GPUs in total, and they need a reliable timeline. Fermi has integrated electricity, land and permits and is able to deliver at this pace.”

Electricity and permits to build a moat: 17 gigawatts planned, 6 gigawatts approved

This deal highlights the core logic of the current AI infrastructure market — “Whoever gets electricity gets the world.” As hyperscale enterprises compete with cloud service providers for large-scale, reliable electricity supply, many projects have stalled due to delayed licensing or lack of financing. With pre-locked land, permits, and power resources, Fermi is ahead of the competition.

The key context of this deal is that access to electricity has become a core constraint on AI infrastructure. Hyperscale cloud service providers and cloud providers are vying for large-scale, reliable electricity supplies, and many projects are stalled due to delayed licensing or unfinished financing.

Fermi's Project Matador is located in a small area of Texas, covering more than half of Manhattan. It is designed to supply electricity behind the meter through a private grid, and the planned capacity is gradually increased to about 17 gigawatts. Currently, about 6 gigawatts have been licensed, and more than 1.5 billion US dollars have been invested in construction so far. The first batch of electricity supply targets is set for 2026.

Compared to similar deals, Fermi's size stands out. Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms, which transformed AI hosting, previously signed a 20-year lease for 191 megawatts of AI data center capacity, which is about 14% smaller than Fermi's initial phase.

AMD's strategic pivot: another challenge for Nvidia

The deal also strengthens AMD's competitive position in AI infrastructure. TensorWave promised to deploy tens of thousands of AMD Instinct GPUs at the facility, indicating that AMD is challenging Nvidia's dominant position in the AI accelerator field by supporting the AI cloud ecosystem. Notably, Fermi anticipated that some of the obligations under the lease would be guaranteed by a leading global AI company, but the identity of the sponsor was not disclosed.

Fermi said the Texas Tech system in partnership with Project Matador supports the deal and will work to facilitate a smooth settlement. The company is also advancing discussions with other hyperscale, new cloud, and enterprise computing counterparties on Project Matador's remaining capacity.