This AI power company ousted its CEO. Why that could help it sign up its first customer.

By Tomi Kilgore

Trump-linked Fermi's stock tumbles as CEO's departure surprises investors, but that could end up being a good thing

Shares of Fermi, which was co-founded by Rick Perry, a former U.S. secretary of energy, were tumbling Monday after the surprise disclosure that its CEO was giving up that role. Some analysts say that could actually be good news.

Shares of Fermi tumbled Monday, as the disclosure that co-founder Toby Neugebauer was leaving his role as CEO surprised investors. But some on Wall Street believe that could be a good thing for the artificial-intelligence power company.

The Texas-based company (FRMI), which went public with a lot of fanfare on Oct. 1, 2025, and has links to President Donald Trump, has had a rough several months. Despite a recent bounce, the stock was trading 84% below its Oct. 1 close of $32.53 and 75% below its initial public offering price.

As the initial IPO hype was fading, the company said on Dec. 12 that its first prospective client for its Project Matador, which includes the Donald J. Trump Generating Plant, had terminated a tenant agreement. The company is also linked with Trump through co-founder Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during Trump's first term in office.

Read: This AI power company's Trump-named power project still has no customers in sight

Late Friday, the company disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Neugebauer had stepped down as CEO but will remain on the board of directors. On Monday, the company also said that Miles Everson had resigned as chief financial officer.

Fermi has set up an office of the CEO to run the company on an interim basis while it searches for a new CEO and said it is currently "in negotiations" with a candidate to be interim CFO.

The stock sank 17.6% on Monday.

Stifel analyst Stephen Gengaro noted that the CEO departure was surprising and "clearly creates concern" for investors, but he also believes it could be a good thing for the company.

He said the company told analysts that there has been an acceleration in customer conversations since the disclosure of Neugebauer's departure.

That suggests "there was friction between potential customers and the outgoing CEO," Gengaro wrote in a note to clients. "It is possible that negotiations with customers could be smoother going forward."

Neugebauer had tried to address concerns in late March that the company hadn't signed its first tenant, but he seemed to make matters worse. He had said that his focus was not on signing a first lease but on securing the right one. That led to a further selloff in the stock.

Mizuho's Vikram Malhotra said the conversations since Neugebauer's departure included potential clients from previous conversations as well as new ones, including both AI hyperscalers and neocloud companies, or AI cloud providers.

-Tomi Kilgore

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04-20-26 1749ET