By John Haughey
A Texas company co-founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry says it will build “the world’s largest Artificial Intelligence complex” in a “first-of-its-kind, behind-the-meter ‘HyperGrid’ campus” near Amarillo.
Dallas-based Fermi America on June 26 announced that it will formally begin work July 4 on a proposed 5,770-acre project that will house 18 million square feet of AI data center development to be fully operational by 2032.
Working “in partnership” with the Texas Tech University System, the company said the campus will generate up to 11 gigawatts of electricity—enough to power 8.2 million homes, equivalent to New York City’s demand—fueled by “the largest nuclear power complex in America” supported by “the nation’s biggest combined-cycle natural gas project, solar power, and battery storage.”
Fermi America did not elaborate on what its source of nuclear generation will be, whether it will build its own reactors or tap into the Department of Energy’s Pantex Plant. 20 miles northwest of Amarillo.
However, Fermi America is seeking expedited approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for at least two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors, each to be tentatively labeled Trump 1 and Trump 2, according to media outlets.
NRC spokesman Scott Burnell on June 27 confirmed that “there is an application” from Fermi America for reactor development filed with the commission, but did not give further details.
“The NRC is checking documents from Fermi America to ensure any protected information is appropriately withheld,” Burnell told The Epoch Times. “Once that check is completed, the agency will make the documents publicly available.”
In a statement announcing the project, Perry said the motivation to incorporate nuclear power into the data center project was Trump’s four May executive orders seeking to “reinvigorate” the domestic nuclear energy industry. He also hinted that Fermi America would build its own reactors.
“The Chinese are building 22 nuclear reactors today to power the future of AI,“ the former three-term Texas governor said. ”America has none. We’re behind, and it’s all hands on deck.”
While the United States is the world’s largest generator and consumer of nuclear energy with 94 nuclear reactors in 55 power plants, most were built between 1970-90. The last new reactor to come online was in 2016.
Meanwhile, according to the World Nuclear Association, China has 58 operating reactors, with 32 under construction, including 10 projected to come online in 2025. China’s first nuclear reactor was built in the early 1980s.
Perry said Trump’s executive order to scale back permitting timelines—it now takes 10 to 12 years to license a new nuclear reactor in the United States under current NRC regulations—is the “decisive action” needed to “pave the way for a nuclear power energy renaissance.”
Nuclear power is regarded as the key to generating the electricity needed to power the AI data centers emerging as infrastructure cornerstones in a rapidly digitalizing world.
Using nuclear energy to power data centers “demands that American innovators rise to the occasion,” Perry said. “No one does energy better than Texas, and Fermi America and the Texas Tech University System are answering the call.”
Fermi America’s apparent intent to build nuclear reactors comes the same week that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the state’s power authority to “immediately begin” developing the state’s first nuclear power plant in 50 years. On June 20, DOE released $100 million from a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to Holtec to restart Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan.
Powering the project “behind-the-meter,” meaning not hooked into public utility grids, is imperative, Fermi America said.
“The world’s largest AI companies can no longer rely on the grid and traditional sources for the power they need, creating a global crisis,” it said. “Ultimately, this has forced America into a dog fight with China—and the winner will control the future of artificial intelligence.”
And that will require “next-generation electric grids that deliver highly redundant power at gigawatt scale,” Fermi America said, outlining three tiers of energy it will integrate into its project.
While developing its on-site reactors, which even under accelerated timelines could take years, Fermi America maintains it will use nuclear power.
The nearby Pantex Plant, where the National Nuclear Security Administration has manufactured and disassembled nuclear weapons for the Department of Defense since 1951, is the likely source.
The siting of the project near the Pantex Plant and its commitment to eventually develop its own “behind-the-meter” nuclear power “underscores Fermi America’s strategic position to build clean, safe, new nuclear power for America’s next-generation AI.
The second “redundant power” source will be what Fermi America touts as “the nation’s biggest combined-cycle natural gas project” that will tap into the North Texas Panhandle-Hugoton field, one of the largest gas fields in the United States, and be “strategically situated at the confluence of several of the nation’s largest gas pipelines.”
The third tier of the data center complex’s ‘HyperGrid’ will be solar power and battery storage. In architectural renderings of the project, the campus is framed by sprawling fields of solar panels. Texas is the nation’s second-leading generator of solar power, behind only California.
Fermi America’s plan to build “an advanced energy and intelligence campus in Amarillo marks a pivotal moment for the Texas Panhandle and for the United States,” Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said, adding it will “place America firmly at the forefront of the global AI race against the Chinese Communist Party.”
