> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.sotkn.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # AMD backs Fermi's 222 MW data center power lease in Texas - URL: https://www.sotkn.com/wire/amd-backs-fermi-222-mw-data-center-power-lease-wire/ - Published: 2026-10-13T23:43:44.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T23:43:44.000Z - Description: On 13 October AMD signed credit support for the 222 MW phase one lease at Fermi's Project Matador in Texas, the $6.5 billion, 15-year TensorWave lease. Fermi calls it a step toward project financing, which has not closed. Delivery starts in the second half of 2027. - Author: Sean - Tags: #desk-wire `WIRE` · `AI DATA CENTERS` · `US` · Data as at 13 Oct 2026 AMD is now standing behind a tenant's rent so that a data center can borrow the money to get built. On **13 October 2026** Fermi America said it had signed a credit support agreement with AMD for phase one of Project Matador in Carson County, Texas: a lease for **222 MW** of gross power capacity, the same lease Fermi signed with the GPU cloud TensorWave on **10 August**. That lease is worth about **$6.5 billion** over **15 years**. Fermi called AMD's backing "a key milestone toward securing project financing", which also tells you the financing is not done. On the [AI Data Centers layer](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/), the chip seller has become part of the tenant's credit. ## What happened 13 October 2026 **Fermi signs a credit support agreement with AMD for the 222 MW phase one lease at Project Matador** No amount, term or fee for AMD's support was disclosed The lease it backs **TensorWave's turnkey lease from 10 August: 222 MW, about $6.5 billion over an initial 15-year term** Designed for tens of thousands of AMD Instinct GPUs. The lease was conditional on project guaranties and financing The framework **AMD and Fermi also agreed a framework for future expansion of up to 650 MW** A framework for phases two and three, not a signed lease The clock **Phased delivery is due to begin in the second half of 2027** Fermi says more than $1.5 billion is already invested in the site, with first power targeted for 2026 ## Why cash cares A landlord building AI halls gets paid rent only once the halls are delivered. Before that, it has to borrow to build them, and lenders look hard at who pays the rent. TensorWave is a young, private GPU cloud. AMD is one of the largest chip companies in the world. Fermi did not say how much of TensorWave's obligations AMD now stands behind, or for how long. What it did say is that the lease itself was conditional on "project guaranties and financing", and that AMD's support is a step toward that financing. That sets the order of payment. Fermi's rent starts with the first delivered phase, from the second half of 2027\. AMD gets paid on a shorter clock: when tens of thousands of Instinct GPUs are bought to fill those halls, not over 15 years. TensorWave gets paid last, when its own customers rent the GPUs. So the chip seller is taking on some of a customer's rent risk to keep its chips flowing into a building that does not exist yet. Here is our own arithmetic, not a Fermi figure. **$6.5 billion over 15 years** is about **$433 million a year** on average. Spread over **222 MW**, that is about **$1.95 million per MW per year** for a turnkey hall, power included. The credit support came **64 days** after the lease was signed. If phase one starts delivering on **1 July 2027**, the earliest date the second half of 2027 allows, that is about **8.5 months** from 13 October. The scale is the other part. The **650 MW** framework is about **2.9 times** phase one. Against the roughly **17 GW** Fermi says Project Matador could reach, phase one is about **1.3%** and the full AMD framework about **3.8%**. ![Matador credit clock: AMD's backing for Fermi's 222 MW lease, from signed lease to first halls](https://storage.ghost.io/c/cd/10/cd10e222-131f-4ba4-b4a9-ca4214e8c12d/content/images/2026/10/matador-credit-clock-print.png) **Figure: Matador credit clock.** A signed lease, then credit support, with financing still to close before the first halls. The $433 million, $1.95 million per MW, 64-day, 8.5-month, 2.9x, 1.3% and 3.8% figures are our arithmetic on Fermi's releases. ## The step that is still open The money for the building. On 12 October, Broadcom's Hock Tan said [capital, not chips, may be AI's next bottleneck](https://www.sotkn.com/wire/broadcom-hock-tan-capital-not-chips-ai-bottleneck-wire/). A day later, a chip seller put its own balance sheet behind a customer's lease so a landlord could raise debt. That is the same bind seen from the other side. It is also the second backstop on this desk in three days. On 12 October [a hyperscaler stood behind BKV's $800M order for 1,200 MW of gas turbines](https://www.sotkn.com/wire/bkv-hyperscaler-backstop-1200-mw-gas-turbines-data-center-power-wire/). The pattern is the one we traced in [when halls are signed before customers, where does cash stick?](https://www.sotkn.com/analysis/halls-signed-before-customers-where-cash-sticks/): the party with the strongest balance sheet ends up carrying the gap between a signed lease and live revenue. ## The second-order read **Who gets paid.** AMD, first, through GPU sales into the halls. Fermi next, once the phase one halls are delivered and the lease is in force. Lenders get a stronger name behind the rent they are lending against. **Who pays.** TensorWave pays the rent over 15 years. AMD now stands behind some of that, on terms nobody has published. **Who waits.** Fermi's rent waits for the second half of 2027\. TensorWave's own revenue waits for customers on the GPUs. **Stuck step.** Project financing. The lease is signed and the backer is named, but the debt has not closed and the lease has not taken effect. ## Three cautions Fermi gave no amount, term or cost for AMD's credit support. "Credit support" can mean anything from a narrow guarantee to wide backing of the lease, and the release does not say which. Nothing has closed. The release lists, as risks, the conditions AMD needs met before its obligations apply and the closing of the TensorWave lease. The 650 MW is a framework, not a lease. The $6.5 billion, the 17 GW and the $1.5 billion invested are Fermi's own figures. Our per-year and per-MW numbers assume even payments over the term, which a phased delivery will not produce. ## What to watch - **Project financing for phase one**: whether Fermi announces the debt closing, and from whom. - **Fermi's SEC filings**: whether the size and term of AMD's credit support appear in an 8-K or the next quarterly report. - **First power at Matador**: Fermi has targeted 2026, so the year-end is the first dated test. - **Phases two and three**: whether any of the 650 MW framework turns into a signed lease. *Read: [AI Data Centers](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/) and [what an AI data center is](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/what-is-an-ai-data-center/)* --- **Get the Wire.** A free brief every day, here and in your inbox. **[Subscribe free →](https://www.sotkn.com/#/portal/signup)** Not investment advice. Do your own research. The $433 million a year, $1.95 million per MW, 64-day, 8.5-month, 2.9x, 1.3% and 3.8% figures are our arithmetic. ## References 1. [Fermi Inc., "Fermi Signs Credit Support Agreement with AMD and Announces Partnership"](https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/oil-gas-and-energy/fermi-signs-credit-support-agreement-with-amd-and-announces-partnership-1236099?ref=sotkn.com), ACCESS Newswire, 13 Oct 2026\. Credit support for the 222 MW phase one lease, key milestone toward project financing, framework up to 650 MW, $1.5 billion invested, about 17 GW subject to binding agreements, TensorWave lease closing and AMD conditions listed as risks. 2. [Fermi Inc., "Fermi Announces Binding Lease Agreement with TensorWave"](https://investor.fermiamerica.com/fermi-announces-binding-lease-agreement-with-tensorwave?ref=sotkn.com), investor relations release, 10 Aug 2026\. 222 MW turnkey lease, about $6.5 billion over an initial 15-year term, delivery from the second half of 2027, conditions on guaranties and financing, AMD Instinct GPUs, first power targeted for 2026. 3. [Foley & Lardner, "Foley Advises TensorWave in $6.5 Billion AI Data Center Lease with Fermi America"](https://www.foley.com/news/2026/08/foley-advises-tensorwave-in-ai-data-center-lease-with-fermi-america/?ref=sotkn.com), 12 Aug 2026\. Counsel's note on the same lease. 4. [TSN, "AMD Backs Fermi's First Texas AI Lease With Credit Support"](https://tsnmedia.org/fermi-amd-credit-support-project-matador-222mw-650mw-framework/?ref=sotkn.com), 13 Oct 2026\. Notes that no value or terms for the credit support were given.