Meet the unlikely poster child for the AI boom and its insatiable energy demand.
Why it matters: Bloom Energy, long seen as a niche energy player, can deliver on-site power far faster than traditional options — a critical edge as data centers race to secure electricity.
Driving the news: Over the past year, Bloom Energy's stock has surged more than 400%, outpacing even AI bellwethers like Nvidia.
State of play: Bloom Energy makes shipping container-sized fuel cell units that generate power with natural gas through a chemical reaction instead of combustion.
- It has signed major deals with key players across the AI and energy landscape over the last year and a half. They include Oracle, utility AEP and Brookfield, a leading financier and owner of data center assets.
- The stock price surged late Thursday after its earnings beat investor expectations earlier in the day.
"We went from zero hyperscalers directly talking to us to pretty much every hyperscaler talking to us," Bloom Energy co-founder and CEO KR Sridhar said in an interview during last month's World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain town of Davos.
- The sudden interest in the San Jose, Calif.-based company reflects how unusual the moment is for a firm that spent years pitching fuel cells to a market that largely wasn't listening.
- During the first half of 2025, "pretty much our phones wouldn't stop ringing, and we had to be selective on who we were talking to," said Sridhar, a physicist and materials scientist who previously worked on energy at NASA.
The big picture: The AI boom is scrambling winners and losers across the economy.
- That's been especially true in the electricity sector. It has long had stagnant growth and a reputation for moving slowly, constrained by regulations and years-long waits to plug into regional power systems.
Zoom out: Bloom Energy has had a long — and controversial — run. Founded 25 years ago by Sridhar, the company initially framed its technology as a clean-energy solution.
- It even drew national attention with a "60 Minutes" segment in 2010.
Flashback: Axios reporting has chronicled some of Bloom's earlier governance and disclosure controversies.
- Bloom's 2018 IPO filing included a surprising disclosure involving investors with ties to a firm sanctioned for misleading investors, and a 2019 Axios investigation flagged a history of unreliable projections.
- "It's a cautionary tale of what can happen when narrative overtakes results," Axios' Dan Primack wrote at the time.
Catch up fast: It now appears some results may be catching up with Sridhar's long-running narrative — thanks to AI.
- "We knew the day would come. We kept plugging away and AI came as a catalyst," Sridhar said in our interview.
Reality check: Analysts at Jefferies raised its 2026 outlook for Bloom on stronger order visibility, according to a late January report by the investment bank.
- But Jefferies is cautious longer term, citing competition, supply risks and limited margin for error at current valuations.
What they're saying: "Data centers have been a huge gift to Bloom and their shareholders," said Michael Thomas, founder and CEO of Cleanview, a market intelligence platform.
- Hyperscalers are willing to pay the relatively higher cost of Bloom Energy's technologies, Thomas said: "All that matters is speed to power."
- Bloom can provide at least some level of on-site power in as little as a few months, compared to multiple years for electricity connected to power grids.
- Sridhar acknowledged that Bloom requires higher up-front costs. But he says its fuel costs are comparable — and that upcoming shifts in how data centers use electricity will make Bloom's technology even more cost-competitive.
How it works: Each fuel cell is roughly book-sized and runs continuously, with hundreds stacked together inside the container-sized power units.
- The fuel cells reduce smog-forming air pollution compared to combustion but still emit carbon when fueled by natural gas.
- Bloom's fuel cells can also use biogas or hydrogen — fuels that remain limited and expensive but that longer term could be cleaner.
By the numbers: Bloom is positioned to benefit from a swift shift toward on-site power at data centers.
- Roughly one-third of all planned new power capacity for data centers is now designed to skip the grid entirely by building power on site, up from virtually none a year ago, according to research by Thomas' firm.
What we're watching: Sridhar dismisses the risk of an AI bubble.
- "If there is a bubble, it's a tiny bubble, and it's not this huge bubble that's going to create a sucking sound."
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