Big Data‑centre Delivery Risk
- Satellite imagery and project tracking show Fermi America's planned giant data centre is at least a year behind schedule. - Separately, plans surfaced for a proposed gigawatt-scale AI data centre in remote Western Australia, costing billions. - Both reports highlight execution and timing risk for massive AI build-outs, complicating assumptions about future cheap compute capacity ( ).
Two giant artificial intelligence data-centre projects on opposite sides of the world are colliding with the same problem: building them is slower and harder than the pitch. (cleanview.co) In Texas, Fermi America told investors after its October 2025 initial public offering that Project Matador near Amarillo would launch its first 1 million square feet by April 2026 and deliver 1 gigawatt of power by the end of 2026. Cleanview reported on April 19 that satellite images show the site is at least a year behind that schedule and that major building construction has not started. (cleanview.co) Fermi raised $746 million in that offering and has pitched the Amarillo campus as an 11-gigawatt project on about 5,800 acres with 18 million square feet of data-centre space. The company has said the site would combine natural gas, solar, wind, batteries and a planned nuclear complex, with the first nuclear phase targeted for 2032. (cleanview.co) (datacenterdynamics.com) (fermiamerica.com) In Western Australia, ABC reported on April 20 that Gingerah Energy is planning Project Meridien, an artificial intelligence training data centre south of Broome in the Kimberley. The project is projected to open in 2032 with about 240 megawatts of information-technology capacity at first and room to expand to 1 gigawatt. (abc.net.au) Gingerah says the site would run on wind, solar, batteries and limited gas generation, and that early modelling points to roughly 90 per cent renewable energy. The company’s land agreement with the Karajarri People covers more than 30,000 square kilometres, with about 275 square kilometres designated for proposed development. (abc.net.au) (wainvestments.com.au) (haskoning.com) These projects are aimed at “AI factories,” warehouses full of specialized chips that train large models and draw power more like heavy industry than a normal office park. ABC said Australia’s existing data centres typically range from 5 to 10 megawatts, which puts a 240-megawatt first stage in a different league. (abc.net.au) The obstacle is not demand for computing power so much as delivery: permits, power systems, construction crews, financing and transmission all have to arrive on time. Cleanview said Fermi’s workforce had shrunk during a permitting pause, while Gingerah told ABC it still has environmental studies and a state assessment ahead of it. (cleanview.co) (abc.net.au) Fermi has said the pause in Amarillo followed rapid completion of an initial phase and that it secured its air permit on February 25. Gingerah has framed Meridien as an off-grid project meant to serve Australian customers and nearby Asian markets, including Singapore, over fibre links from Western Australia. (cleanview.co) (abc.net.au) (haskoning.com) The timing matters because many forecasts for cheaper artificial intelligence computing assume huge new campuses will arrive close to schedule. The latest view from Texas and Western Australia is that the promised gigawatts are still mostly on paper. (cleanview.co) (abc.net.au)
