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Good morning. In October, Fortune reported that former U.S. energy secretary and Texas governor Rick Perry’s AI power startup Fermi “went from nonexistent to an October IPO with a mammoth $16 billion market cap in less than a year without any announced customers or construction—or even a single dollar of revenue.” Now they are without a CEO or CFO as well.
Fermi is developing an AI campus in Amarillo, Texas, powered by nuclear reactors. The company said Monday that its “Fermi 2.0” strategy includes leadership changes. Toby Neugebauer stepped down as CEO on April 17 but remains on the board, according to an SEC filing.
The company’s IPO last year was quickly followed by a steep decline in the stock market as it lost its first planned hyperscaler customer, Fortune’s Jordan Blum reports. An unnamed Fermi tenant canceled a $150 million deal for the data center campus in December. Fermi had planned to secure an anchor tenant by March, which has yet to happen, according to Blum.
Fermi’s market cap has fallen from nearly $20 billion in October down to $3.4 billion as of Monday, including a nearly 18% dip on the news of the leadership changes. The board created an Interim Office of the CEO, including COO Jacobo Ortiz and board observer Anna Bofa, and launched a formal CEO search with Heidrick & Struggles. Some analysts think Neugebauer’s “surprising” departure could prove to be a positive for the company. You can read more here.
Meanwhile, Miles Everson resigned as CFO and secretary on April 19 without “good reason,” according to an SEC filing, but was elected to the board with a term expiring in 2028.
Everson’s CFO agreement took effect upon Fermi’s IPO in October, after being signed on Sept. 30, 2025. Before Fermi, he spent more than six years as CEO of MBO Partners and about 30 years at PwC in senior roles including global advisory and consulting leader.
Fermi said it’s currently in negotiations to secure an interim CFO. In the age of AI, a new barometer has emerged for CFO recruiting, said Shawn Cole, president and founding partner of executive search firm Cowen Partners. “Everything from AI curiosity to proven AI expertise” is in demand, he told me.
As part of “Fermi 2.0,” the company aims to attract strategic investors, including sovereign funds and client-tenants. Cole said firms typically want either the CEO or CFO to bring those relationships. “But that absolutely could be a part of the CFO mandate,” he added. This means that strong contacts could outweigh an AI aptitude barometer.
As boards reshape teams around AI-driven strategies, they may increasingly want CFOs who can both lead AI transformation and engage sophisticated investors—but those skills don’t always come together.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Jonathan H. Baksht was appointed SVP and CFO of Westlake Corporation (NYSE: WLK), a global manufacturer. Baksht succeeds M. Steven Bender who will retire by the end of the year and, effective June 15, will transition to the position of special advisor to the president. Baksht most recently served as EVP and CFO of Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. Before that, he served as CFO of Pactiv Evergreen Inc. (now Novolex). He also held various positions at Valaris Limited, including most recently as CFO.
Sudhakar Vadapalli was appointed CFO of Trianz, a technology company. Sudhakar brings close to two decades of software finance leadership, the majority of it at IBM, where he managed the finances of a large global software and services business unit. After IBM, he took the role of VP of finance at AppViewX and most recently served as deputy CFO at Material in New York.
Big Deal
Billions in tariff refunds are now available
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officially launched Phase 1 of the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) functionality on April 20. This automated system within the Automated Commercial Environment Secure Data Portal allows importers to submit refund declarations on duties paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which were invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court has ruled, the CAPE system is now live, and billions in deemed 'unlawful' tariffs are available for recovery," said Luis "Lou" Abad, a Washington National Tax principal at KPMG U.S. "Importers that move quickly with diligent and accurate data‑backed CAPE Declarations could see cash refunds in as little as 60–90 days."
He cautioned that this is not simply a box‑checking exercise. "The data gathering and validation process is exacting, CBP's compliance scrutiny will be rigorous, and mistakes can be costly," he said. The real winners will be the companies using technology‑enabled recovery strategies, Abad said.
The government still has the option to appeal. I asked Abad how CFOs should be thinking about that risk in their financial planning. He noted that while the government does retain the right to appeal the CIT orders on IEEPA refunds, "any appeal risk is, in our view, more likely to affect entries currently outside Phase 1 of the CAPE refund process—particularly those more than 180 days past liquidation, where no reliquidation path has yet been defined."
His advice: "That uncertainty argues for thoughtful planning, not for waiting on the sidelines."
Going deeper
Apple is getting a new chief executive, the tech giant announced on Monday. Tim Cook, CEO of 15 years, is stepping down in September. His successor is longtime Apple hardware executive John Ternus, who will take the reins of the $4 trillion company.
“Cook, one of the world’s most admired CEOs, who turned 65 in November, had been rumored to be nearing retirement, but Monday’s announcement came without Apple having previously commented on succession plans,” writes Fortune’s Alexei Oreskovic. You can read more here.
Overheard
"He may have inherited the iPhone from [Steve] Jobs, but it was Cook who scaled it into the most indispensable device on earth, transforming it into the singular hardware hub around which billions of people organize their daily lives."
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, and Steven Tian, director of research, write in a Fortune opinion piece titled "This Apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Tim Cook is leaving at a peak and John Ternus is exactly the right CEO for the AI era."
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