Lee McIntire takes Fermi CEO role as Texas AI power campus moves to buildout

Why it matters

McIntire's appointment moves Fermi from founder-led dealmaking toward construction discipline just as its first binding customer turns Project Matador's schedule into a commercial obligation.

Lee McIntire is taking over as CEO of Fermi, more than three months after the board removed co-founder Toby Neugebauer from the job, TechCrunch reported on August 12. The appointment puts an engineer and veteran infrastructure executive in charge of converting the founders' pitch for a private AI power campus into operating data centers.

McIntire spent 15 years at Bechtel, led engineering and construction group CH2M Hill and served as CEO of Bill Gates-founded nuclear developer TerraPower from 2015 to 2018. He was already an independent Fermi director and, in April, joined the committee charged with finding Neugebauer's successor. The board ultimately chose one of the people conducting the search.

That choice matches the task Fermi now faces. Marius Haas told TechCrunch: "The job now is to build on schedule, on budget, and safely." Fermi's problem is no longer a shortage of scale or ambition. It is the work of financing, sequencing and constructing a campus that combines data-center shells, gas generation, grid power, batteries, solar and, over a longer horizon, four proposed nuclear reactors.

A builder replaces an energy investor

Neugebauer brought a capital-markets background to Fermi. He co-founded Quantum Energy Partners in 1998 and spent years investing in oil, gas and energy infrastructure before forming Fermi with former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Griffin Perry and power executive Larry Kellerman.

The founders built Fermi around a direct response to the AI industry's power shortage: control the land, generation and data-center facilities inside one development rather than wait for a conventional utility interconnection. Fermi calls that development Project Matador, a planned 17 GW private power and computing campus in the Texas Panhandle.

McIntire changes the leadership profile from founder-financier to project operator. His civil engineering training and experience at Bechtel and CH2M Hill cover the kind of contractor management, procurement and construction controls that Project Matador requires. His TerraPower tenure also gives him experience inside a nuclear developer, although Fermi's near-term delivery plan depends heavily on natural gas and grid-supplied electricity while the nuclear portion moves through licensing and development.

The transition follows a sharp break between Neugebauer and Fermi's independent directors. The board removed him as CEO in April and terminated his employment for cause later that month, citing alleged misrepresentations, unauthorized discussions and conduct that violated Fermi policies. Neugebauer disputed that characterization and pursued an effort to change the board. In May, a federal judge denied Fermi's request for an emergency injunction against that effort on the grounds that Fermi had not shown a substantial likelihood of success on its legal claims.

Fermi had placed day-to-day management with co-presidents Jacobo Ortiz Blanes and Anna Bofa while executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles ran the CEO process. The April restructuring announcement called for a leader with operational expertise, public-company experience and the ability to work with customers, regulators and community partners. McIntire fits the specification Fermi published when the search began.

TensorWave gives McIntire a delivery deadline

McIntire arrives two days after Fermi announced its first binding customer lease, giving his tenure an immediate commercial test. Under the August 10 agreement, AI cloud provider TensorWave agreed to lease a facility supported by 222 MW of power at Project Matador.

Fermi says the facility is designed to support tens of thousands of AMD Instinct GPUs, with phased delivery scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027. Fermi calculates approximately $6.5 billion of contracted revenue over the initial 15-year term. Expansion rights could take the relationship above 650 MW.

Those numbers remain tied to execution. The lease includes conditions involving project guarantees and financing, and the revenue is expected across 15 years rather than booked today. The initial facility also requires Fermi to deliver the physical building and power infrastructure before TensorWave can occupy it.

The distinction matters because Fermi was formed in January 2025 and reported no revenue through December 31, 2025. The same filing estimated that Phase 0 and Phase 1 of Project Matador could require more than $3 billion in capital expenditures. Fermi has since raised additional financing and says more than $1.5 billion has been invested in the site buildout, but the full campus will demand considerably more capital as construction advances.

Nuclear remains the long project

Fermi's current marketing centers nuclear power, yet the first operating megawatts are expected to come from a mixed system. Fermi says roughly 6 GW of planned natural-gas generation has received an air permit, while grid power and gas turbines are intended to support earlier phases. The proposed nuclear complex consists of four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors whose federal review, financing and construction will run on a separate timeline.

That makes McIntire's appointment broader than a nuclear hire. He must coordinate power generation, high-voltage equipment, data-center construction, tenant requirements and regulators while protecting a schedule that underpins the TensorWave contract. Delays in one part of the project can hold up the rest.

Fermi's founders assembled the site, political relationships, financing story and public-market vehicle around a large bet on AI electricity demand. McIntire inherits the part that cannot be solved with another announcement: delivering power and usable computing space on the dates Fermi has promised.