West Texas has always been the land of big hats and no cattle, but Fermi America—led by our very own high school “pharmaceutical” connection, Toby Neugebauer—has taken the trope to a literal, multi-billion-dollar scale. The “President Donald Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus” (yes, that’s the real name, and no, the irony isn’t lost on us) is currently a massive patch of dirt in the Panhandle that promises to use more power than New York City while currently delivering the computational output of a solar-powered calculator in a dust storm.
Toby, who we all remember as the guy most likely to have a “business meeting” behind the bleachers, abruptly quit as CEO on Friday. This comes right after the company’s stock pulled a Lubbock property value during a freeze, shedding 75% of its worth in six months. Apparently, Toby realized that building an AI megaproject requires things like “cooling systems” and “actual customers,” two minor details he admitted to being a bit “naive” about. Who knew that keeping thousands of AI chips from melting required more than just a stiff breeze and a prayer to Rick Perry?
Speaking of the Perrys, former Energy Secretary Rick helped co-found this mess, but his son Griffin seems to have found the emergency exit early, dumping 11 million shares while the getting was still semi-good. While Toby was busy telling Axios that the total lack of anchor tenants “isn’t a problem,” the SEC filings and satellite images suggest otherwise. The site currently shows about as much visible progress as the construction on 19th Street, which is to say: absolutely none, despite the “world-class” hype.
The project, also known as “Project Matador,” is fittingly named because someone is definitely getting the horns here, and it’s the investors. Between clashing with the Commerce Secretary and “misunderstanding” how the global supply chain for industrial cooling works, Toby’s departure is the least surprising thing to happen in Amarillo since the last time it smelled like manure.
Toby’s reputation for “high-energy” side-hustles back in the day is the stuff of local legend, but it turns out that being a high school entrepreneur doesn’t translate to corporate leadership. Honestly, when you slap a Trump logo on a Neugebauer-managed operation, were we really expecting anything more than a giant, expensive hole in the dirt?
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