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The risk of a partial U.S. government shutdown beginning next week is rising as congressional Democrats and Republicans hit an impasse over how to continue to fund the federal government. A shutdown could affect financial markets by limiting the operations of financial regulators and delaying the publication of key economic data. How might markets react? Historically, markets have tended to shrug off shutdowns. However, this time could be different. A prolonged shutdown risks delaying or canceling key economic data releases investors use to assess macroeconomic trends, such as the monthly employment and inflation reports, analysts at Nomura said in a note this week. That would mean the Federal Reserve is flying blind, making it more likely to stick with its own economic projections of two 25-basis-point rate cuts for the rest of 2025, the analysts said. With investors unable to assess the extent of a U.S. economic slowdown, the Treasury yield curve could steepen further as rate cuts get priced in with more conviction, leading to a wider gap between short- and long-dated Treasury yields, TD Securities said in a note. A lengthy government shutdown could also affect some market participants’ ability to conduct complex trades for which they may require regulatory guidance. What happens to financial regulators? While U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had not widely shared its contingency plans as of Tuesday, a shutdown would likely reduce the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to a skeletal staff, according to its October 2024 plan for a lapse in government funding. This would severely limit the agencys ability to review corporate filings, investigate misconduct, and oversee markets. Likewise, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would furlough almost all of its employees and cease most market oversight activity, according to its 2023 contingency plan. Previous government shutdowns have caused delays in the CFTC publishing reports on traders’ positions in futures and options markets. The banking regulators and consumer watchdog, which are not funded by congressional appropriations, will remain functional. In 2019, a protracted government shutdown slowed down some of Trump’s de-regulatory efforts in part because of staff furloughs at the Office of the Federal Register, which must formally publish all steps in the rule-writing process, Reuters reported at the time. Will IPOs be affected? Yes. A shutdown would likely freeze the IPO pipeline. Companies planning to go public would be unable to proceed without the SEC’s approval, potentially dampening momentum in the equity capital markets, which have enjoyed an IPO boom in recent months. Michelle Price, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
As the rise of artificial intelligence continues, companies operating in this space or relying on the technology are finding that they have two inextricable needs: data centers that can run and process the AI, and access to ample energy to power those vast data centers. One new company, Fermi America, aims to offer solutions for both these needs. And this week, Fermi announced its plans for an upcoming initial public offering and dual stock listings. Heres what you need to know about Fermi America and its planned IPO. What is Fermi America? Fermi America is a very young company. It was only founded this year, just nine months ago in January 2025. The company is so new that its website is still a relatively barebones affair. Given the youth of the company, its no surprise that the majority of Americans have most likely never heard of it. But they have heard of its cofounder, Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who ran as a GOP contender for president in 2012 and 2016. After unsuccessful presidential bids, Perry was appointed as the 14th United States Secretary of Energy, during President Donald Trumps first term in office. In addition to Perry, Fermi America was also cofounded by Toby Neugebauer, a former comanaging partner of Quantum Energy. Fermi America intends to be a provider of data and power centers that other companies can use to host their AI needs. But I say intends to, because Fermi America doesnt actually provide any services yet. Heck, it doesnt even have any infrastructure yet to provide its services. What Fermi America does have is a lease for 5,236 acres of land owned by Texas Tech University, which is where Fermi plans to build a “HyperGrid” in an undertaking dubbed Project Matador. What is Project Matador? Project Matador is the name given to Fermi Americas HyperGrid project. This HyperGrid will be a combined data and power center that other companies will pay to lease space on to run their AI needs. In its Form S-11 Registration Statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Fermi says Project Matador is a multi-gigawatt energy and data center development campus that will ultimately be called the Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus at Texas Tech University. Fermi says the mission of this campus is to deliver up to 11 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon, HyperRedundant, and on-demand power directly to the worlds most compute-intensive businesses. It says it will achieve this mission by using nuclear, solar, and natural gas energy to power the facility. By 2038, the company says it aims for the campus to deliver up to 11 gigawatts of power to AI data centers. It also says it expects the first 1.1 gigawatts of power to be online by the end of 2026. However, all this is hypothetical for now. To date, Fermi America has not actually started constructing Project Matador. The company still needs to secure funding for the campuss construction. It aims to raise some of that money through investments, including funds raised from its IPO. Yet the fact that Project Matador is little more than an idea at this point is something potential investors should consider. As Fermi America warns in its Form S-11, our business model is highly dependent on the successful construction, development, leasing, and continued maintenance of Project Matador. When is Fermi Americas IPO? Fermi America has not announced a date for its planned IPO yet. This week’s announcement is for Fermis IPO roadshow, which is when executives of a company planning to go public meet with potential investors. Roadshows are designed to generate hype and interest in a companys initial public offering. What is Fermi Americas stock ticker? Fermi Americas shares will trade under the stock ticker FRMI. What exchange will Fermi Americas shares trade on? Fermi America shares will trade on not one, but two stock markets. The company says it intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in the U.S. and on the London Stock Exchange in the UK. What is the IPO share price of FRMI? An exact IPO price for Fermis shares has not been determined yet. But the company says it is targeting a price range of between $18 and $22 per share for its public offering. How many FRMI shares will be available in its IPO? Fermi says it plans to make 25 million shares of its common stock available in its IPO. The company says it will also grant its underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3.75 million shares. How much will Fermi America raise in its IPO? With an expected IPO price of between $18 and $22 per share, Fermi is expected to raise between $450 million and $550 million in its IPO. How much is Fermi America worth? Reuters notes that under the companys current IPO price estimates, Firmi America is targeting a valuation of up to $13 billion. What will Firmi America use its IPO proceeds for? According to its roadshow announcement, Fermi America says it intends to use the net proceeds from its IPO to support the continued growth and development of Fermi America’s business, to secure personnel, to increase its financial flexibility, and for general corporate purposes, including, but not limited to, procurement, construction, and installation of long lead-time items.
Category:
E-Commerce
Many of the office buildings emptied by the pandemic are still sitting vacant. A recent report from Moody’s Analytics found that in the second quarter of 2025, office vacancy rates were still above 20% nationwide, and cities across the country are still trying to figure out what, if anything, to do about it. One startup has an unconventional solution: it wants to fill that empty space with crops. Area 2 Farms is a three-year-old company based in Arlington, Virginia, that’s taking the concept of indoor farming to unusual spaces. Its first farm, in Arlington, grows dozens of varieties of crops in a low-slung brick building tucked between a dog day care and a car repair shop. With a new infusion of venture capital, the company is planning to expand, and it’s looking to empty office buildings as potential future farms. “Part of our vision is that a farm can go anywhere,” says the company’s founder, Oren Falkowitz. Backed by $9 million in new funding from Seven Seven Six, Slow Ventures, 468 Capital, and Animo, Area 2 Farms is planning to build 10 new farms across the U.S. in 2026. Falkowitz says the company is currently pursuing opportunities in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Nashville, South Florida, Orlando, Austin, and Raleigh-Durham, and Atlanta. His goal is to build indoor farms within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population. [Photo: Area 2 Farms] Proximity is the driving idea behind the company. Falkowitz grew up in south Florida and remembers a time when oranges were typically bought not at a grocery store but from the actual orange grove, directly from the farmers who grew them. Today studies estimate that most produce travels hundreds of miles before it reaches the end consumer. “The production of our food just gets pushed further and further away,” Falkowitz says. “As a result of this distance, the stores are asking growers to produce things that are more shelf-stable, not necessarily more diverse or more nutritional.” Falkowitz, who previously worked for the National Security Agency and later founded two cybersecurity companies, proposes a hyperlocal alternative. “We move the farm, not the food,” he says. [Photo: Area 2 Farms] The company’s pilot farm in Arlington produced its first crop in fall 2022. The company estimates it has produced more than 20,000 harvests since then, using a modular rack-based system that automatically moves crops through a cycle of mimicked daylight and darkness. Planted in box containers filled with soil, the farm is able to grow kitchen staples like lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and mushrooms, as well as more niche items like amaranth microgreens and purple shamrock. Rising 18 feet tall, the racks cram 200 acres-worth of annual crop growing into 3,000 square feet of real estate. Indoor farming is not new. Greenhouses are an essential part of the global food system, and Falkowitz notes that hydroponic farming has existed since the days of Babylon. “I would say it’s only partially interesting to be growing vertical, and it’s totally uninteresting or uninnovative to ship your products to Whole Foods, or Safeway, or Publix,” he says. Area 2 Farms works more like those orange groves Falkowitz remembers as a child, but with the high-tech twist of its automated growing racks. Local farmers run the space and its customer base comes primarily from within a two-mile radius for weekly farm share pickups. “When we build a farm or we move the farm back to people, we want them to interact with it. We don’t want anyone in between the farmer and the consumer,” he says. The idea has caught on. “We’ve been sold out for the last hundred weeks,” Falkowitz says. That’s why he’s keen to expand Area 2 Farms’ modular farming technology to new spaces. “What we wanted the technology to be able to do is to fit wherever it could,” he says. “In order to build a greenhouse in a city you would need a quarter-acre to an acre of just land, and that does not exist.” What does exist in cities is underutilized buildings and oddly shaped lots. Area 2 Farms is currently in the process of building its second farm on a trapezoid-shaped lot in Fairfax, Virginia, that’s been vacant for 20 years. Falkowitz sees even more potential in the empty offices that litter cities across the country, and he says cities and real estate owners have been open to the idea of taking this farming technology inside former offices. “They’re just like, ‘have the space. We don’t know what to do with it,'” Falkowitz says. Area 2 Farms is one alternative, and perhaps a second chance for buildings that might have otherwise gone obsolete. “At the core, we’re really focused on revitalizing underutilized or existing spaces,” Falkowitz says. “And that can be a wide array of shapes.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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