Fermi America, the company developing the 11GW HyperGrid AI data center campus in Amarillo, Texas, has raised $100 million as part of a Series C equity funding round, led by Macquarie Group.

In addition, the data center developer secured a $250m senior loan facility, funded solely by Macquarie’s commodities and global markets business, with $100m drawn at close.

“Macquarie’s leadership in both our Series C and senior loan facility underscores their conviction that our speed of execution is based on our team’s experience in real-time power generation and construction,” said Fermi America co-founder & CEO Toby Neugebauer. “Like generations of entrepreneurs and workforces before us from this very region, we are delivering on energy promises made so that America can win again.”

Fermi aims to develop one of the largest data center complexes to date. If built, the data center campus is expected to span 18 million sq ft (1.67 million sqm) and generate 11GW of IT capacity, powered by a combination of natural gas, solar, wind, and nuclear energy.

The company has already signed several agreements to secure the power required for such a significant project. In July, the company acquired more than 600MW of natural gas generation assets across two deals. The acquired assets include nine natural gas turbines, which the company said will support its goal of delivering 1GW of AI power at the site by 2026.

In the long term, nuclear power will be the primary supplier of energy to the campus. The company plans to deploy four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the HyperGrid campus. The AP1000 is an advanced Generation III+ Pressurized Water Reactor, with a capacity of between 1,100MWe to 1,117MWe. To support the deployment, Fermi has directly partnered with Westinghouse to finalize the Combined Operating License Application to deploy the reactors at the site.

In addition, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korean firm Hyundai to deliver nuclear power to the site. The MoU will support the joint planning of a nuclear-based hybrid energy project, the development of a detailed business package by project stage, feasibility studies, basic design, and EPC projects.

Finally, Fermi signed an additional MoU with Doosan Enerbility, a South Korean nuclear power plant component manufacturer, to support the site's nuclear buildout.

Fermi was co-founded by former US Energy Secretary and Texas governor Rick Perry. It is developing the campus in collaboration with Texas Tech University System, which comprises five public universities across Texas.

The company has stated that geotechnical work has already commenced on the campus. While the company has set a target to achieve 1GW of power by 2026, it has not provided a clear timeline for the project's full build-out.