Former Texas Governor Rick Perry’s real estate investment trust, Fermi Inc., is seeking to raise up to $550 million through an initial public offering. The company, co-founded by Perry—who also served as U.S. Energy Secretary—plans to offer 25 million shares priced between $18 and $22 each, according to Bloomberg.
If the shares price at the top of that range, Fermi would reach a valuation of $13.2 billion based on outstanding shares. The REIT intends to finalize pricing on September 30 and begin trading on October 1 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, with an additional listing in London. UBS, Evercore ISI, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Mizuho are managing the underwriting process.
Fermi was established in January and describes itself as focusing on infrastructure and real estate with an emphasis on energy security and digital demand. Its main project is “Project Matador,” a 5,000-acre advanced energy and intelligence campus located on land leased from Texas Tech University. The company aims to attract data center and hyperscale tenants by providing one gigawatt of power by the end of next year, with plans for a total buildout reaching up to 11 gigawatts by 2038. The campus will source its energy from natural gas, solar, and nuclear power.
Fermi reported a loss of $6.37 million from its launch through June, according to its SEC filing. However, the IPO represents an effort to position large-scale energy infrastructure within a REIT structure—a format typically used for office buildings or hotels—in response to growing demand for data centers driven by cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Perry sits on Fermi’s board of directors. “His political profile and energy background could help the firm land both capital and regulatory buy-in for its long-term vision,” according to the release.
The timing comes as institutional investors have increasingly focused on data centers as a resilient sector within commercial real estate amid ongoing challenges for office properties and retail spaces.
