South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction has agreed to provide design services for four nuclear reactors in Texas, backing a contentious startup’s ambitions to power artificial intelligence data centers with atomic energy.
The company signed a front-end engineering design contract with Fermi America on Oct. 24 for work on Westinghouse AP1000 reactors near Amarillo, according to a statement Saturday. Fermi claims the facility will be part of a $500 billion energy campus, though the startup went public in October with a market capitalization exceeding $19 billion despite generating no revenue.
The deal marks Hyundai E&C’s first major U.S. nuclear design contract and follows a July memorandum of understanding between the firms. An engineering, procurement and construction agreement is expected by mid-2026.
Fermi, co-founded by former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, says it will deliver the first reactor by 2032—an aggressive timeline that has drawn skepticism from industry veterans. The startup acknowledged in regulatory filings that its project may never become commercially viable and doesn’t expect revenue until 2026 at the earliest.
Nuclear experts have questioned whether Fermi can succeed where others have failed. Southern Co.’s recent Vogtle expansion in Georgia took roughly a decade and ran $17 billion over budget, underscoring the industry’s history of delays and cost overruns.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently reviewing Fermi’s license application.
