Shares fell about 22% Monday after Fermi’s CEO Toby Neugebauer and CFO Miles Everson stepped down from executive roles as the company announced a broader reorganization called "Fermi 2.0," with lead independent director Marius Haas named chairman.

Leadership shake-up

Fermi said on Monday that Toby Neugebauer, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, has left his executive role and stepped down as chairman while remaining a board member. Miles Everson, the firm’s chief financial officer, also departed the executive ranks in the same announcement. The moves were framed by the company as part of a broader reorganization it described internally as "Fermi 2.0."

The board named Marius Haas, the lead independent director, to serve as chairman. The company also said Everson has been elected to the board as a result of director designation rights held by the Melissa A. Neugebauer 2020 Trust.

Market response and investor signal

Investors reacted sharply: shares fell about 22% on Monday after the company disclosed the changes, reflecting concern about execution at a firm that has pitched itself as a marriage of advanced reactors and artificial-intelligence workloads.

Leadership instability tends to raise questions for companies still proving out long-term capital projects. Fermi has been seeking deep-pocketed partners and long-term customers to underwrite construction of reactors and data center infrastructure. Sudden departures at the top amplify doubt about timelines and financial appetite for high-cost builds.

Project Matador, Amarillo campus and customer friction

Fermi is developing what it calls Project Matador, an AI campus near Amarillo, Texas, designed to use small modular reactors and advanced nuclear systems to supply electricity to data centers on site. The company says the campus is intended to combine carbon-free power with the specialized cooling and redundancy needs of large machine-learning clusters.

  • Reporting indicates friction with a key customer tied to the campus plan; the company statement did not detail the exact nature of the disagreement.
  • Project Matador has encountered headwinds moving from planning to construction, typical for large energy and computing infrastructure efforts.
  • Fermi must complete nuclear permitting and construction while locking in long-term data center contracts to justify the capital outlay.

Board moves and corporate repositioning

The company framed the executive exits and the new Dallas corporate headquarters plan as steps in a reset. Calling the changes "Fermi 2.0," the company said it was reorganizing governance and operations to reassure investors and partners that it remains committed to completing Project Matador.

Electing Everson to the board through the director designation rights held by the Melissa A. Neugebauer 2020 Trust keeps him involved at the governance level even as he leaves the CFO role. And keeping Neugebauer on the board preserves continuity with the founding team while signaling a handoff at the top.

Founding team and policy pedigree

Fermi was co-founded in part by Rick Perry, who previously served as U.S. Energy secretary. The company's founding pitch blended the stability and zero-carbon profile of nuclear power with the skyrocketing appetite for electricity from artificial-intelligence models and data center operations. That pitch helped the startup attract attention from investors and potential partners as it developed plans for Project Matador.

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Neugebauer remains on the board while Marius Haas serves as chairman.