(Reuters) -Fermi, co-founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, is targeting a $13.16 billion valuation in its U.S. initial public offering, it said on Wednesday, as the AI boom fuels spending on data centers.

The Amarillo, Texas-based data center builder plans to raise up to $550 million by offering 25 million shares priced between $18 and $22 apiece.

Data centers have become highly sought after as technology companies race to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence models, which relies heavily on such infrastructure.

Fermi was founded in January 2025 by Perry and Toby Neugebauer, the former co-managing partner of Quantum Energy. Perry is currently a director at Fermi.

Fermi is aiming to build the world's largest energy and data complex, powered by nuclear, natural gas and solar. The complex will be built on a 5,236-acre site in Texas owned by the Texas Tech University.

Dubbed as Project Matador, Fermi's flagship project hopes to draw data center and hyperscaler tenants and is expected to have one gigawatt of data center capacity ready by end of 2026.

While Fermi has big plans, it is yet to generate any revenue and remains a development-stage company.

Fermi aims to join a string of AI-focused companies that have public markets this year, such as chip designer Ambiq Micro and data center operators CoreWeave and WhiteFiber.

In August, Fermi secured $350 million in financing from Australian finance giant Macquarie.

UBS Investment Bank, Evercore ISI, Cantor and Mizuho are the joint lead book-running managers for the offering. Fermi will list on Nasdaq under the symbol "FRMI."

The proceeds from the offering will be used to procure equipment and powered shells for the company's energy and data complex.