AMD Backs 222 MW Fermi America Data Center Lease

Fermi America signed a credit support agreement with AMD supporting a customer lease for the first phase of Project Matador.

Fermi says it has invested more than $1.5 billion in the project to date. The initial phase represents 222 MW of gross power capacity.

I read the gap between the 222 MW first phase and the 17 GW vision as the whole story: one is real, the other is still a vision.

The companies also outlined a framework for potential expansion to as much as 650 MW. The framework for possible expansion does not establish that the entire 650 MW has been contracted, financed or built.

Project Matador is planned as a behind-the-meter AI data center campus with a private electrical grid. The company completed a $785 million IPO in October 2025, just nine months after its formation.

AMD is both an investor in TensorWave and the supplier of the GPUs underpinning its AI cloud business, while now providing credit support for TensorWave’s lease obligations to Fermi.

I see a tight circle: AMD backs the lease, supplies the chips, and owns part of the customer. If demand softens, the exposure ripples through each link. The company has described a longer-term 17 GW campus vision, conditional on customer commitments, capital and development milestones.

I'd watch whether this credit support actually gets the financing closed, and whether the lease stays leased when the first term ends.