When investors line up the biggest winners in AI infrastructure, names like Micron and Sandisk dominate the conversation. But one unlikely contender has delivered a far more staggering return over the past year: Bloom Energy Corp. (BE), the solid oxide fuel cell maker whose shares have skyrocketed more than 1,410% on the back of insatiable power demand from artificial intelligence data centers.
The AI compute boom has triggered an unprecedented power crunch across the U.S., as hyperscalers race to stand up server farms to train and run advanced large language models. Goldman Sachs research projects U.S. data center power demand will roughly double in two years, climbing from 31 gigawatts in 2025 to 66 gigawatts by 2027, with total installed capacity on track to surpass 95 gigawatts in that window.
Traditional grid expansions take three to five years to complete, and next-generation small modular nuclear reactors still face lengthy regulatory approval processes — timelines that cannot keep pace with the breakneck speed of AI buildouts. That mismatch has turned fast-deployable, distributed on-site power into a hot commodity, elevating niche clean energy providers into critical AI infrastructure players.
A 20-year veteran of the fuel cell industry, Bloom Energy was long stuck in a rut of policy headwinds and missed Wall Street targets. As recently as early 2024, its shares traded for single digits. That narrative has been upended by the AI power rush, fueled by the company’s ability to roll out its solid oxide fuel cell systems in roughly 55 days — a speed advantage that has made it a go-to partner for data center operators racing to meet capacity deadlines.
The defining catalyst came via a landmark deal with Oracle, which has agreed to procure up to 2.8 gigawatts of Bloom’s fuel cell systems to power its global AI infrastructure network. The partnership validated distributed fuel cells as a viable near-term solution to the AI power gap, and sent Bloom’s valuation into a steep rerating.
The AI tailwind is already showing up clearly in the company’s financials. From 2023 to 2025, total revenue grew from $1.3 billion to over $2 billion, while gross profit nearly tripled. Fiscal 2025 marked a key milestone: the company posted its first full year of GAAP operating profitability and positive free cash flow.
Growth has only accelerated in 2026. First-quarter revenue doubled year over year to an all-time high, leading management to lift its full-year 2026 revenue outlook to $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion — a midpoint increase of roughly 80%. Consensus analyst forecasts call for even faster expansion ahead: revenue is seen rising 84.3% in 2026 and 72.6% in 2027. Earnings are on track to more than double in back-to-back years, climbing from $0.76 per share in 2025 to $2.14 in 2026 and $4.36 in 2027.
Still, the stock’s historic run has left it with a towering valuation. Shares currently change hands at about 170 times forward earnings and 37 times trailing sales — a massive premium to its five-year average price-to-sales ratio of 3.2.
The stretched multiple has split market opinion. Skeptics warn that most of the company’s AI-driven growth prospects are already baked into the share price, making chasing the rally risky and advising investors to wait for a pullback before building positions. Bulls counter that the AI data center buildout is still in its early stages, and deeper partnerships with major tech players could unlock additional upside not yet priced in.
Bloom Energy’s meteoric rise lays bare a widening trend in AI investing: the sector’s economic benefits are rippling far beyond chipmakers and server vendors, reaching the upstream power infrastructure that underpins all compute capacity. For investors navigating the AI trade, the tug-of-war between explosive growth and rich valuations will remain the central dynamic for energy-linked plays like Bloom Energy.
