Fermi CEO Ousted, Sale Rejected Amid $68M Selloff

NEW YORK, April 24 —

Fermi Inc. fired co-founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer on April 17, publicly rejected his demand to sell the company three days later, and is now governed by an "Office of the CEO" that didn't exist two weeks ago. Through it all, insiders have dumped $67.8 million in stock over the past 90 days without a single purchase. The stock has whipsawed between a 15.8% single-day rally and a 28% after-hours collapse, settling at $5.92 on a $3.73 billion market cap for a company with zero revenue and zero signed tenants.

The Firing and the Counterpunch

The 8-K filed April 17 was terse: the board removed Neugebauer, citing fiduciary duties. No transition period, no gracious "pursuing other opportunities" language. Just out.

Neugebauer, Fermi's largest external shareholder, responded by sending a letter urging the board to initiate an immediate sale. When the founder with the biggest equity stake tells the board to sell the whole thing, that is not a vote of confidence in management's ability to execute. It is an admission that the equity is worth more to an acquirer today than it will be to public shareholders tomorrow.

The board rejected the proposal publicly, arguing a sale "is not in the best interest of its continued momentum on Project Matador" and long-term shareholder value. In the same breath, the company said it remains open to strategic investments, joint ventures, or other transactions. Translation: not for sale, but open to everything short of a sale. The stock rallied 15.8% to $5.86 on that news, breaking a three-day losing streak. Then it tumbled more than 28% in after-hours trading.

The Management Vacuum

Three days after firing the CEO, Fermi filed another 8-K disclosing that CFO Miles Everson had also resigned. The board's solution: create an "Office of the CEO" led by interim co-presidents Jacobo Ortiz Blanes and Anna Bofa, with board chair Marius Haas overseeing the structure. Jeffrey Stein and the departing Everson were appointed to the board.

A co-president structure is what companies adopt when they cannot agree on who should be in charge. It is a governance arrangement that works precisely until it doesn't, which is usually the first time the co-presidents disagree on something material. For a pre-revenue company that needs to raise north of $3 billion to build a 17-gigawatt power campus, the absence of a permanent CEO is not a cosmetic problem. Capital partners and potential tenants evaluate management stability before writing checks. Bloomberg described the situation as "C-Suite Drama After 72% Selloff." Barron's argued the CEO's exit could solve the company's biggest problem. Both framings concede the same point: this company's leadership has been its own obstacle.

The Selling Pattern

The insider activity tells a story the press releases don't. Over the past 90 days, insiders sold $67.8 million in Fermi stock. Nobody bought a single share.

Griffin Perry's transactions dominate: 9 million shares sold at $5.02 on March 30 ($45.2M), then another 2 million shares at $5.54 on March 31 ($11.1M). That is $56.3 million liquidated in 48 hours.

But the C-suite selling is more telling. Three executives sold in coordinated fashion on back-to-back days in early April. Chief Site Development Officer Charles Lynn Hamilton, COO Jacobo Ortiz Blanes, and CFO Miles Everson each sold shares on April 8 at roughly $4.91 per share and again on April 9 at roughly $4.58, totaling approximately $11.5 million across six transactions. When three senior officers sell on the same two days at declining prices, that is not routine portfolio diversification. That is a coordinated exit at whatever price the market will give them.

The timing matters. Ortiz Blanes, who was selling stock on April 8 and 9, was named interim co-president on April 20. Everson, who sold alongside him, resigned as CFO the same day. These are people who knew the organizational structure was about to change and chose to reduce their exposure before it did.

Project Matador: The $3 Billion Bet With No Buyers

Fermi's entire thesis rests on Project Matador, described as a 17-gigawatt HyperGrid campus integrating natural gas, nuclear, solar, and battery storage into a private grid platform for hyperscale AI and data center tenants. It is the kind of project that sounds transformative in a pitch deck and terrifying on a balance sheet.

Expected project spend exceeds $3 billion. The company has zero revenue and no definitive tenant leases signed. Fermi said it received "significant and positive feedback" from potential tenants, its landlord (Texas Tech University System), suppliers, financing sources, and partners following its April 20 announcement. Positive feedback is not a signed contract. In infrastructure development, the distance between "interested" and "committed" is measured in years and billions of dollars.

The company did enter material definitive agreements creating direct financial obligations in filings on March 27 and February 25. Those filings confirm the company is spending real money. The question is whether it is spending it toward a project that will generate returns or into a hole that gets deeper with every quarter.

The Numbers Behind the Vision

Fermi reported EPS of -$0.84 against an estimate of -$0.02 two quarters ago, and -$0.18 against -$0.02 last quarter. Those are not ordinary misses. The first was a loss roughly 42 times worse than the Street expected; the second, about 9 times worse. When a company misses by an order of magnitude against estimates that were already negative, the analysts covering it are not modeling the business. They are guessing.

Wait. Strike that framing on the first miss. The fact-pack-supported surprise percentage for two quarters ago is approximately -3,336%, which translates to burning through cash at roughly 33 times the rate the Street modeled. Either way, the conclusion is the same: Wall Street has no reliable model for this company's burn rate.

Analyst consensus puts the price target at $23.11 against a current price of $5.92, implying nearly 4x upside. That target requires believing that a pre-revenue company with no signed tenants, no permanent CEO, a co-founder agitating for a fire sale, and consecutive quarters of blowout losses will execute a $3 billion-plus infrastructure project without a hitch. The forward P/E of 5.4x looks cheap until one remembers there are no actual earnings to grow into.

What Comes Next

The bear case here is not complicated. Project Matador needs capital that Fermi does not have. Raising that capital requires either equity dilution (brutal at $5.92), debt financing (difficult with no revenue), or a strategic partner willing to bet billions on an unproven platform run by an interim management team. Every week without a signed tenant lease or a named financing partner makes the $3 billion price tag heavier.

Neugebauer's push for a sale is not going away. As the largest external shareholder, he has both the incentive and the standing to escalate. Whether that means a proxy fight, a public campaign, or simply waiting for the board to exhaust its other options, the sale question will keep resurfacing until either a tenant signs or the stock forces the issue.

The checkpoints to watch: any 8-K disclosing a definitive tenant agreement, any equity or debt offering filing, and whether the co-president structure survives through the summer. If Fermi is still pre-revenue and pre-tenant by Q3, the $23 analyst target becomes an artifact rather than a forecast.

For a fuller picture of Fermi's financial position and filing history, run the free Fermi Inc. deep-dive →

Basis Report does not hold positions in securities discussed. This is not investment advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was Fermi's CEO fired?

Fermi's board removed co-founder Toby Neugebauer on April 17, 2026, citing fiduciary duties. The full details are in the SEC 8-K filing analyzed above.

What is Fermi's Project Matador?

Project Matador is a planned 17-gigawatt HyperGrid campus integrating natural gas, nuclear, solar, and battery storage to serve hyperscale AI and data center tenants. As detailed in this report, it remains pre-revenue with no signed leases.

Are Fermi insiders buying or selling stock?

Insiders sold $67.81 million in FRMI stock over 90 days with zero purchases. Three C-suite officers sold in coordinated fashion on the same two days, as the Form 4 filing analysis above details.

Does Fermi have any revenue?

No. Fermi is pre-revenue with no definitive tenant leases signed and expected project costs exceeding $3 billion, per the company's own filings discussed in this report.

Is Fermi being sold?

The board publicly rejected fired CEO Neugebauer's push for a sale, stating it would harm Project Matador's momentum. However, the company remains open to strategic investments and joint ventures, as analyzed above.