Feud between AI power startup Fermi and its fired CEO and top shareholder heats up over proposed sale

The new leadership of the AI power startup Fermi is feuding with its fired CEO and top shareholder over a potential sale of the company. The struggling Texas company, which went public last year at a nearly $20 billion market cap, aspires to build the largest data center campus in the world, called Project Matador, in the Texas Panhandle, but it has struggled to nail down anchor tenants. Fermi is now advising against recommendations from its fired co-founder and CEO to sell the company. The company’s market cap has plunged to less than $3.2 billion as of April 21. The former CEO, Toby Neugebauer, who’s the top Fermi shareholder, said he was fired “without cause” last week and now supports an immediate process to sell the company in order to make “money for all shareholders.” Neugebauer said his family and former executive allies own about 40% of Fermi shares. Neugebauer and former chief financial officer Miles Everson, who abruptly resigned April 20, remain Fermi board members. Also still sitting on the seven-person board is Fermi backer and Neugebauer’s longtime friend, Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and U.S. energy secretary. Since Neugebauer’s and Everson’s departures were announced, Fermi said April 21 that its “2.0” version “has received significant and positive feedback from multiple potential tenants” and partners. The majority four members of the Fermi board are presumably leading the charge, led by chairman Marius Haas, founding partner of the BayPine private equity firm and a veteran of Dell Technologies , Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Intel . “Given recent changes in leadership, which position the company for its next chapter of growth and evolution from a startup to a scaled enterprise, the company firmly believes a sale is not in the best interest of its continued momentum on Project Matador, ability to serve potential tenants, and long-term value creation for shareholders,” Fermi said in a statement. Fermi said it will review “all avenues to max…