Better late than never.

Shares of Fermi jumped 16% to $6.82 in premarket trading on Tuesday after the data-center developer announced late Monday it finally found a tenant for its Project Matador campus in Amarillo, Texas.

Fermi has a lease contract for 15 years, with revenue of approximately $6.5 billion over that period, with artificial-intelligence cloud provider TensorWave.

Under the contract, Fermi will develop, construct, and deliver data centers to TensorWave. The AI cloud provider will then take occupancy in phases, according to Fermi.

The lease carries expansion rights for two additional data centers that when exercised could bring the partnership to a total of more than 650 megawatts, according to Fermi.

"A lease of this size and this term is a tremendous vote of confidence in Fermi," Chairman Marius Haas said in a media release. "In delivering this first binding agreement, we've now fulfilled the most important objective we shared with the market in May."

The phased lease agreement is expected to begin in the second half of 2027.

Fermi, co-founded by Rick Perry, the former U.S. energy secretary and former governor of Texas, aims to build the world's largest data center at the 7,570-acre site.

Despite that lofty goal, Fermi struggled to find a lease partner for the site. That led to friction with former CEO Toby Neugebauer, according to some analysts. Neugebauer was dismissed as chief executive in April.

Fermi stock entered the trading session on Tuesday down 27% this year.