Lee McIntire – CEO of Fermi America

Lee McIntire – CEO of Fermi America

Lee McIntire is the Chief Executive Officer of Fermi America, the publicly traded energy and AI-infrastructure company developing a large-scale private power grid designed to supply electricity directly to hyperscale data centers and advanced computing facilities.

McIntire became Fermi's CEO effective August 11, 2026, after serving as an independent director on the company's board since September 2025. His appointment comes at a critical stage in Fermi's development as the company moves from project development toward construction and the delivery of first power.

The appointment is significant because McIntire brings more than 40 years of executive leadership experience across engineering, construction, energy, infrastructure, nuclear technology, and complex government projects. His previous leadership positions include CEO of CH2M HILL, CEO of TerraPower, and interim CEO of McDermott International. Earlier in his career, he spent 15 years at Bechtel, where he became a partner, executive vice president, board member, and president of several multibillion-dollar businesses.

At Fermi, McIntire is taking responsibility for one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects created around the intersection of artificial intelligence and energy: Project Matador, a planned 17-gigawatt private energy and AI campus in the Texas Panhandle.

Who Is Lee McIntire?

Lee A. McIntire is a veteran engineering and infrastructure executive whose career has centered on delivering extremely large and technically complex projects.

Unlike many technology executives now entering the AI infrastructure sector, McIntire did not build his career in software or venture capital. His expertise comes from the physical infrastructure required to make large industrial systems work: engineering, construction, energy generation, nuclear programs, transportation infrastructure, water systems, government projects, and international development.

That background has become increasingly relevant as AI companies encounter one of the industry's biggest constraints: access to reliable electricity.

Fermi's strategy is based on solving that problem by developing private, behind-the-meter power infrastructure capable of supplying AI data centers at gigawatt scale. The company says its planned Project Matador campus could ultimately reach approximately 17 GW of capacity.

Fermi Chairman Marius Haas said McIntire was selected because the company's next phase is fundamentally a construction and power-delivery challenge, requiring an executive with decades of experience delivering major projects safely, on schedule, and on budget.

Education and Early Career

McIntire earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska and later completed an MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

He also completed an executive management program at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and served as an Executive-in-Residence at the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management.

His early career was rooted in the field rather than in corporate headquarters.

A CH2M HILL sustainability profile describes McIntire as having grown up working construction in Nebraska with his father. After earning his engineering degree, he worked internationally, including on oil-fire projects in Saudi Arabia, before moving into project management at Bechtel.

That combination of engineering education and hands-on project experience became a defining feature of his leadership career.

The Bechtel Years

McIntire joined Bechtel in 1989 and spent approximately 15 years with the global engineering and construction company.

During his time at Bechtel, he held increasingly senior positions, ultimately becoming a partner, executive vice president, board member, and president of several of the company's multibillion-dollar businesses.

His leadership positions included president of Bechtel Civil, president of Bechtel North America, and president of Bechtel National. He also served on Bechtel Group's board of directors.

The experience gave McIntire exposure to some of the world's most demanding engineering and government infrastructure programs.

It also established the pattern that would characterize much of his later career: taking responsibility for large organizations and complex projects where execution, safety, engineering discipline, and stakeholder management are essential.

Leading CH2M HILL

In 2006, McIntire joined CH2M HILL as President and Chief Operating Officer.

He became CEO in January 2009 and subsequently served as chairman.

His tenure coincided with a major period of growth for the engineering and consulting company.

According to corporate records, CH2M HILL grew to more than 30,000 employees, expanded its international presence to more than 100 countries, diversified its services, and roughly doubled revenue to approximately $7 billion during McIntire's tenure as CEO.

The company's work during this period included major international infrastructure programs.

Projects associated with CH2M HILL under McIntire's leadership included:

• The Channel Tunnel Rail Link

• Infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic Games

• Expansion of the Panama Canal

• Major combined-cycle gas power projects in Texas

• The Abu Dhabi nuclear program

• Major water and environmental infrastructure projects

His CH2M HILL experience is particularly relevant to his current role at Fermi because it combined engineering, construction, international project management, government relationships, and energy infrastructure.

From Infrastructure to Advanced Nuclear Energy

McIntire's next major executive chapter took him deeper into the energy sector.

In 2015, he became CEO of TerraPower, the advanced nuclear energy company founded with backing from Bill Gates.

He served as CEO from 2015 through 2018, with the mandate of helping move TerraPower's advanced reactor technology from research and development toward commercial execution.

This was an important transition in McIntire's career.

His earlier experience had centered largely on engineering and construction. TerraPower added direct exposure to advanced nuclear technology, energy policy, nuclear commercialization, and the challenge of turning technically ambitious energy concepts into commercially viable projects.

That experience now gives him a particularly relevant perspective at Fermi, where nuclear generation is one component of a much larger AI-power strategy.

McDermott and Crisis Leadership

McIntire also developed experience leading companies during periods of significant corporate transition.

He joined the board of McDermott International in 2020 and was appointed interim President and CEO in June 2021 following the departure of the company's previous CEO.

He served in the interim CEO role until January 31, 2022, and subsequently became McDermott's Lead Independent Director.

This experience added another dimension to McIntire's leadership profile: governance and crisis management.

At McDermott, he helped oversee the company during a consequential period that included financial restructuring and a major cybersecurity event. Corporate disclosures later highlighted his strategic leadership and experience with risk management, engineering, operations, and construction.

Joining Fermi's Board

McIntire joined Fermi's board as an independent director in September 2025.

His board appointment gave him an inside view of the company's strategy before he ultimately took over as CEO.

That experience became particularly important in 2026 as Fermi went through a significant leadership transition.

In April 2026, Fermi announced a formal search for a new CEO following the departure of co-founder Toby Neugebauer. McIntire was one of the independent directors involved in the CEO-search process.

Only a few months later, the board selected McIntire himself for the position.

His appointment therefore represented more than the arrival of an outside executive. He already understood Fermi's business, board-level strategy, infrastructure plans, and challenges.

Becoming CEO of Fermi

Fermi announced McIntire as CEO in August 2026, with his appointment effective August 11.

The company described the transition as a move from development toward construction and first power.

That distinction is central to understanding McIntire's role.

Fermi's initial phase was dominated by developing the concept, securing land and infrastructure, attracting customers, obtaining permits, and establishing its financing and commercial model.

McIntire's challenge is now execution.

The company's chairman explicitly framed the priority as building on schedule, on budget, and safely—areas that align closely with McIntire's four decades of experience.

What Is Fermi America?

Fermi America is developing what it describes as a new generation of private electric grids designed for AI and advanced computing.

Rather than depending entirely on conventional utility-grid infrastructure, Fermi intends to build power generation and transmission infrastructure directly alongside its AI data-center campus.

The company's model combines multiple sources of electricity, including:

• Natural gas generation

• Nuclear power

• Utility-grid power

• Solar power

• Battery energy storage

The objective is to provide large amounts of reliable electricity directly to data-center customers.

Fermi's strategy reflects a growing reality in the AI industry: building more GPUs and data centers is not enough if the electricity infrastructure cannot support them.

Project Matador

At the center of Fermi's strategy is Project Matador, a massive energy and AI campus in the Texas Panhandle.

The project is located on a site covering thousands of acres and is designed to ultimately support approximately 17 GW of power capacity.

Fermi describes the campus as a private, behind-the-meter system designed specifically to address what it considers the largest constraint on AI infrastructure: access to reliable, large-scale power on the timeline demanded by AI data-center operators.

The planned energy mix is unusually broad.

Project Matador is expected to integrate a major combined-cycle natural-gas project, a large new nuclear-power complex, utility power, solar generation, and battery storage.

The goal is not simply to build a data center.

It is to build the energy system behind the data center.

Fermi's First Major Customer

One of the most important developments immediately preceding McIntire's appointment was Fermi's agreement with TensorWave, an AI cloud infrastructure company.

Fermi announced a binding 15-year lease agreement with TensorWave for the first phase of its Project Matador campus.

The agreement is expected to generate approximately $6.5 billion in contracted revenue over the initial 15-year term, excluding renewal terms. Expansion rights could eventually increase the relationship to more than 650 MW across additional data centers.

Fermi also reported that approximately 6 GW of its planned 17 GW had been permitted and that more than $1.5 billion had already been invested in the buildout.

The company has targeted first power for 2026.

For McIntire, the TensorWave agreement provides an important commercial foundation as he takes over the company.

Lee McIntire's AI Infrastructure Strategy

McIntire's public comments suggest that he sees electricity as one of the fundamental bottlenecks to AI growth.

In an August 2026 article published by Fermi, he argued that the traditional electric grid may not be capable of delivering the scale, speed, and reliability required by next-generation computing.

His response is Fermi's behind-the-meter strategy: build the power infrastructure alongside the AI infrastructure rather than waiting for conventional grid expansion.

This represents a broader shift in how AI infrastructure is being designed.

The AI industry increasingly requires enormous amounts of electricity for model training, inference, cloud computing, and data-center operations. Fermi's thesis is that companies capable of controlling both computing infrastructure and power infrastructure can gain an advantage in deploying capacity faster.

McIntire's background makes him particularly suited to this thesis because his career has been built around exactly the type of physical infrastructure Fermi needs to deliver.

A Different Kind of AI CEO

McIntire stands out among contemporary AI-infrastructure executives because his expertise is not primarily software.

His career has been built around:

Engineering → Construction → Infrastructure → Energy → Nuclear → Project Execution

That trajectory gives him a different perspective from technology executives focused primarily on GPUs, software, cloud platforms, or AI models.

Fermi's business requires all of those technologies—but it also requires land, water, fuel, permits, construction crews, power equipment, transmission systems, financing, regulators, and customers.

McIntire's professional background spans many of those disciplines.

Leadership Philosophy

Although McIntire is not known for the type of highly publicized personal leadership philosophy common among startup CEOs, his career provides a clear picture of the principles he emphasizes.

Execution

McIntire's appointment at Fermi is fundamentally about execution.

The company has already established its vision. The challenge is turning that vision into physical infrastructure.

Safety

Safety has been a recurring theme throughout his engineering and construction career.

Fermi's chairman specifically emphasized the need to build safely alongside meeting schedule and budget targets.

Large-Scale Program Management

From Bechtel to CH2M HILL and TerraPower, McIntire has repeatedly operated at the intersection of engineering, finance, government, and construction.

That experience is directly applicable to Project Matador.

Long-Term Infrastructure Thinking

McIntire's career has focused on assets and systems that take years to develop and operate for decades.

That is fundamentally different from the short product cycles typical of software startups.

Challenges Ahead

McIntire takes over Fermi at an unusually consequential moment.

The company is attempting to build a massive energy and AI campus while the economics and infrastructure requirements of AI data centers are changing rapidly.

Among the major challenges are:

• Delivering Project Matador on schedule

• Securing additional AI customers

• Managing construction costs

• Obtaining remaining permits

• Financing future development

• Integrating multiple energy technologies

• Building nuclear capacity

• Maintaining regulatory and community support

• Delivering reliable electricity to hyperscale customers

• Scaling the project from its initial phase toward the proposed 17 GW capacity

The company's stock-market performance and commercial expectations also place additional pressure on management.

Fermi went public in 2025 and has remained a pre-revenue development-stage company, meaning execution milestones are particularly important to investors.

The Nuclear-AI Connection

Fermi's strategy sits at the intersection of two major infrastructure trends: AI computing and nuclear energy.

AI data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, while nuclear power can provide high-capacity generation with consistent output.

However, nuclear projects are among the most technically and regulatorily complex infrastructure projects in the world.

McIntire's previous leadership at TerraPower gives him direct experience with advanced nuclear technology and commercialization.

His challenge at Fermi is broader: integrate nuclear generation into a complete power system that also includes natural gas, renewable generation, storage, and data-center infrastructure.

Governance and Industry Experience

Beyond his executive positions, McIntire has accumulated extensive board and policy experience.

He currently serves as Lead Independent Director at McDermott and has served on boards including Spur Petroleum, Al Bawani Holding, BAE Systems, and Ovintiv.

He has also participated in organizations including the Business Roundtable, National Petroleum Council, Council on Competitiveness, World Economic Forum, and U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum.

His work with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and other industry organizations has further connected him with major questions around infrastructure, energy, technology, and public policy.

Awards and Recognition

McIntire's long career has earned recognition from business and international organizations.

He is a recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Award and the Korbel Award for International Business.

During his tenure at CH2M HILL, the company was recognized by the Ethisphere Institute among the World's Most Ethical Companies and appeared on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list.

These recognitions reflect the broader leadership and governance responsibilities McIntire has held throughout his career.

What Comes Next for Lee McIntire and Fermi?

McIntire's first major test as Fermi CEO is likely to be measured less by announcements and more by physical progress.

The company now needs to convert its ambitious plans into operating infrastructure.

The TensorWave agreement provides an initial commercial anchor, while the permitted capacity and existing investment provide a foundation for continued development.

The longer-term objective remains considerably more ambitious: developing a private energy ecosystem capable of supporting approximately 17 GW of AI computing infrastructure.

If successful, Fermi could become an important example of a new model for AI infrastructure—one in which the data-center operator and energy developer are effectively integrated.

For McIntire, this represents a natural culmination of a career spent moving between engineering, construction, energy, nuclear technology, and corporate leadership.

Why Lee McIntire Matters

Lee McIntire matters because his appointment signals a shift in what Fermi needs from its leadership.

The company's first phase was about creating an ambitious vision for AI-powered energy infrastructure.

Its next phase is about building it.

McIntire has spent more than four decades managing exactly the kinds of engineering, construction, energy, and infrastructure challenges that Fermi now faces.

His previous experience at Bechtel gave him exposure to multibillion-dollar infrastructure programs. His leadership at CH2M HILL demonstrated his ability to scale a global engineering organization. TerraPower gave him direct experience with advanced nuclear energy. His work at McDermott provided crisis-management and governance experience.

Fermi is now bringing all of those experiences together around one of the defining infrastructure questions of the AI era:

How do you build enough reliable electricity to power the next generation of artificial intelligence?

McIntire's answer is increasingly centered on building the power system alongside the computing infrastructure.

Key Facts About Lee McIntire

Category	Details
Full Name	Lee A. McIntire
Current Role	Chief Executive Officer, Fermi America
CEO Effective Date	August 11, 2026
Company	Fermi America / Fermi Inc.
Industry	Energy, AI Infrastructure, Data Centers
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas
Board Role Before Becoming CEO	Independent Director, Fermi
Fermi Board Joined	September 2025
Previous CEO Roles	CH2M HILL, TerraPower
Interim CEO Role	McDermott International
Previous Company	Bechtel
Engineering Background	Civil Engineering
Bachelor's Degree	University of Nebraska
MBA	Thunderbird School of Global Management
Executive Education	Dartmouth Tuck School of Business
Major Expertise	Engineering, Construction, Energy, Nuclear, Infrastructure
Major Fermi Project	Project Matador
Planned Project Capacity	Approximately 17 GW
First Major Customer	TensorWave
TensorWave Contract	Approximately $6.5B over initial 15-year term
Current Strategic Focus	Construction, power delivery and first power

Information is based primarily on Fermi's August 2026 CEO announcement and investor materials, supplemented by SEC filings, McDermott records, and established industry sources.

 Summary

Lee McIntire is the CEO of Fermi America, the energy and AI-infrastructure company developing Project Matador, a planned 17-gigawatt private power and data-center campus in the Texas Panhandle.

Appointed CEO effective August 11, 2026, McIntire brings more than four decades of experience across engineering, construction, infrastructure, energy, nuclear technology, and corporate governance.

His career includes senior leadership at Bechtel, where he spent 15 years and became a partner and executive vice president; CH2M HILL, where he served as CEO and chairman; TerraPower, where he led the advanced nuclear company from 2015 to 2018; and McDermott, where he served as interim CEO during a major corporate transition.

At Fermi, McIntire's mission is fundamentally execution-oriented: transform the company's ambitious AI-power strategy into physical infrastructure.

With Fermi having secured a major 15-year TensorWave lease worth approximately $6.5 billion in contracted revenue and reporting substantial progress toward its planned power capacity, McIntire enters the role at a pivotal point in the company's development.

His appointment also reflects a broader change in the AI industry. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly power-intensive, the executives capable of building energy infrastructure may become just as important as those building the AI models themselves.