Fermi Taps Energy Architect for Board in High-Stakes AI Power Play

DALLAS, TX – May 01, 2026 – In a move that underscores the critical link between energy infrastructure and the future of artificial intelligence, Fermi America co-founder Toby Neugebauer has nominated Larry Kellerman, the company's Chief Power Officer, to its Board of Directors. Kellerman is the celebrated architect of Fermi's colossal 17-gigawatt (GW) data center campus in Amarillo, Texas, a project poised to operate America's largest private energy grid.

The nomination elevates a top operational leader with profound energy expertise to the highest level of corporate stewardship, signaling a strategic pivot in the data center industry. As AI's computational demands strain public power grids to their limits, companies like Fermi are betting that generating their own power is not just an advantage, but a necessity for survival and dominance.

The Architect's Ascent

Larry Kellerman is no stranger to the complexities of the energy sector. With a career spanning more than four decades, he brings a formidable resume in power industry finance and infrastructure development. Before joining Fermi, his career was marked by senior leadership roles at some of Wall Street's and the energy industry's most powerful firms.

As a Partner and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs from 2002 to 2010, Kellerman built a highly successful on-balance-sheet power generation business. His team acquired and developed 6,500 megawatts of power assets, delivering an impressive 60% internal rate of return. Prior to that, as a Senior Managing Director at El Paso Corporation, he expanded the firm's domestic generation portfolio to 7,000 megawatts. More recently, as a Managing Director at I Squared Capital, he led the take-private acquisition of Atlantic Power Corporation.

His role in conceiving and executing Fermi's energy strategy has been pivotal. Neugebauer, the company's largest shareholder, emphasized Kellerman's indispensable role since the project's inception, originally codenamed 'Project Matador'.

"When I came up with the idea of Project Matador, I knew that Larry Kellerman was the one person I needed to convert a really great idea into a really great reality," Neugebauer stated. "His knowledge of power and the future of powering data centers is unmatched. Larry is uniquely qualified to steward Fermi as a Board member."

Kellerman, who is also a co-founder of the investment firm Twenty First Century Utilities, expressed his honor at the nomination. "I appreciate everything that Toby has manifested in Fermi and know that no other human could have created the enterprise and its many thoughtfully interconnected elements as quickly, as effectively, and in as value-accretive a manner as Toby's leadership has been able to deliver," he said.

Project Matador: A Private Grid for the AI Era

At the heart of Fermi's strategy is its audacious Amarillo campus, a project that redefines the scale of data center infrastructure. The planned 17-GW capacity of its private grid, dubbed a "HyperGrid™," would dwarf even the largest power plants on the public grid. For perspective, the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest power-producing facility in the United States, has a capacity of just over 7 GW.

Located on a 5,263-acre site leased from the Texas Tech University System, Project Matador is designed to be a self-sufficient energy island. The campus plans to utilize a diverse mix of generation sources, including four state-of-the-art AP1000 nuclear reactors from Westinghouse, a natural gas plant, and extensive solar panel installations. This "behind-the-meter" power generation is designed to provide low-carbon, highly redundant, and on-demand electricity directly to what Fermi calls "the world's most compute-intensive businesses."

This approach directly confronts the most significant bottleneck facing the data center industry today: the public grid. With interconnection queues stretching three to seven years, hyperscale companies are unable to build new facilities fast enough to keep pace with AI's explosive growth. Fermi's model offers a radical solution: bring your own power.

A Power Play in a Power-Hungry Industry

Kellerman's nomination comes as the data center industry grapples with an unprecedented energy crisis. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global electricity consumption from data centers, AI, and cryptocurrency could surpass 1,000 terawatt-hours by 2026—roughly double the consumption of 2022. In the U.S. alone, data centers could account for 9% of the country's total electricity demand by 2030, up from just 4% in 2023.

This voracious appetite for power is straining utility infrastructure that was designed for slow, predictable growth. The surge in demand is forcing energy providers to delay the retirement of fossil fuel plants, complicating national and corporate sustainability goals. Fermi's strategy of integrating large-scale nuclear power alongside renewables and natural gas is positioned as a more reliable and scalable path to providing the low-carbon, 24/7 power that AI workloads demand.

By placing an energy veteran like Kellerman in a position of strategic oversight, Fermi is making a clear statement. In the new landscape of technology infrastructure, managing electrons is as crucial as managing data. The company is betting its future on the idea that true leadership in the AI era will belong to those who control their own power destiny.

Redefining Infrastructure and Leadership

The elevation of a Chief Power Officer to a board nominee is more than a personnel update; it's a strategic declaration that reflects a fundamental shift in the industry. For decades, power was viewed as a simple operating expense for data centers. Today, it has become the primary strategic asset and the main constraint on growth. Kellerman's potential board seat institutionalizes this new reality within Fermi's corporate DNA.

His deep expertise in structuring complex energy financing and optimizing generation assets will be invaluable as Fermi executes its multi-billion-dollar vision. The company, structured as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), is already leveraging innovative regulatory pathways, participating in a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) pilot program to cut environmental review times by half.

As investors and competitors watch closely, Kellerman's appointment would solidify Fermi's identity as an advanced energy company first and a data center developer second. This move underscores a new reality where the architects of power grids are becoming the architects of corporate destiny in the digital age.