AMARILLO, Texas — On a 5,800-acre swath of dusty plains outside the barbed-wire fence of the Pantex nuclear weapons plant, crews are piling up mounds of dirt for a colossal monument to Donald Trump’s presidency — possibly the biggest he won’t own.
It’s here that Fermi America — a startup led by former Texas governor and U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Dallas billionaire Toby Neugebauer — is developing what would be the world’s largest private energy grid and AI campus. It includes the most ambitious build-out of legacy nuclear reactors in half a century. Canals for power lines and chain-link fences for an electricity substation are the first tangible signs of Fermi’s Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus.
The project hatched near the start of Trump’s second term is riding the political and policy currents the White House put in motion to accelerate artificial intelligence. The AI bonanza has reshaped the U.S. economy. Tech investors are speculating and trading on debt for projects of enormous scale, complexity and cost. States eager for economic development dollars are fast-tracking electricity expansions that could raise household costs.
If it’s built, the venture Fermi calls Project Matador would host 18 million square feet of data centers packed with supercomputers to train the next generation of AI. Nuclear, gas and solar plants would generate more electricity than 15 states use at their peak. Neugebauer and Perry say Fermi is allying with America’s national security priority: dominating China for AI supremacy.
