· Origin
Texas Tech University System signs a 99-year ground lease with a Fermi subsidiary
According to Fermi's later SEC filings, a Fermi subsidiary entered into a 99-year ground lease with the Texas Tech University System and Texas Tech University on May 14, 2025 for 5,769 acres in Carson County, intended for Project Matador. The lease sets a base rent and variable payments tied to appraised data-center value and to power and water sales. Before vertical data-center construction, Fermi must receive a notice to proceed from the System. The lease was not publicly described until Fermi's IPO-period filings; an excerpt of Fermi's NRC application quoted by Lubbock Lights dates the lease instrument to April 2025.[1][2][3]
Texas Tech University SystemFermi America (Fermi, Inc.)
What the sources say
- ✓ Verified
Fermi Inc. (SEC filing): Fermi's 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 says the company entered a 99-year ground lease with the Texas Tech University System on May 14, 2025 for 5,769 acres in Carson County, with no lessee-controlled options to extend or terminate. Base rent is $1.2 million in the first year, escalating during the first five years and by a fixed 3% a year afterward. When data-center space is subleased, Fermi owes variable payments of up to 1% of the appraised value of leased data-center space (up to $3 billion of assessed value; 0.5% above that) to the extent greater than base rent, plus 1% of gross power sales and 25% of gross water sales to its subtenants. No variable payments had been made as of June 30, 2026.[1]
- Lease years
- 99
- Lease acres
- 5,769
- Base rent year1
- $1,200,000
- Escalator after year5
- 3%
- Power revenue share
- 1%
- Water revenue share
- 25%
- ⚠ Sources differ
Sources give different dates for when the Texas Tech land agreement was executed.
- Lease date
- 2025-05-14
Date of the 99-year ground lease in Fermi's 10-K and 10-Q.
Reported value 2[3]
- Lease date
- 2025-04
An excerpt of Fermi's NRC application, as quoted by Lubbock Lights, says the leasehold interest was executed in April 2025 through a Ground Lease Development Agreement.
- ✓ Verified
Fermi Inc. (SEC filing): Fermi's 10-K says the lease requires a notice to proceed from the Texas Tech University System before development, conditioned on, among other things, evidence of full funding and financing for Phase 1, an executed lease with a Phase 1 tenant, insurance, environmental site assessments, a $5 million letter of credit and all permits needed to begin Phase 1 construction.[2]
- Letter of credit
- $5,000,000