Despite the sharp rise in market value, earnings remain modest. In the third quarter, reported on Oct. 28, revenue rose 57% year over year to $519 million, while net profit reached $7.8 million, reversing a $9.7 million loss a year earlier. Among 26 analysts covering the stock, five carry sell or strong-sell ratings, and the average price target sits at $115—below Friday’s close. Jefferies sees the shares dropping to $53, and Bank of America continues to rate them “sell,” arguing that investors are pricing in “five years of perfection.” Over the past 12 months Bloom shares have moved more than 5% on 76 separate trading days, swinging from an April low of $15.15 to weekly spikes such as last week’s advance.
Operationally, Bloom has installed 1.5 gigawatts of fuel-cell capacity worldwide since 2008, with more than 400 MW dedicated to data centers. The firm’s Fremont, California, factory can turn out 1 GW of capacity annually, and management plans to double that figure by December 2026. A $600 million credit facility secured from Wells Fargo in late December, combined with $595 million in cash at Sept. 30, is intended to fund the expansion. Chief Commercial Officer Aman Joshi says a single additional production line costing $100 million to $150 million would meet near-term demand, while economies of scale are trimming unit costs by roughly 10% each year.
Bloom also entered a $5 billion strategic partnership with Brookfield Asset Management in October. The arrangement positions Bloom as the preferred onsite power supplier across Brookfield’s infrastructure portfolio and is expected to boost sales while giving customers financing options. Evercore analysts called “speed to power” the crucial advantage of Bloom’s model, which relies primarily on liquefied natural gas but can also run on biogas or hydrogen, generating lower emissions than conventional grid electricity.
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The broader backdrop is an unprecedented rush to expand computing capacity for generative AI. McKinsey & Co. estimates that data-center construction will demand about $7 trillion in capital outlays by 2030. The United States already hosts nearly 3,800 facilities, according to industry tracker Data Center Map, with roughly 280 more scheduled to come online through 2028. The Bank of America Institute projects domestic electricity demand to rise 2.5% annually this decade, five times the pace of the previous ten years. OpenAI’s chief financial officer recently summed up the challenge: money is plentiful, but power connections are scarce.
Competitors exist but face cost or technology hurdles. Plug Power’s hydrogen fuel cells are viewed mainly as backup power because operating expenses exceed those of Bloom’s LNG-fed units, while FuelCell Energy’s platform is seen by analysts as a decade behind Bloom’s in maturity. GE Vernova has an 80-GW order backlog for gas turbines used as standby generators and is developing its own fuel-cell technology, which it expects to introduce to data-center clients within two to three years. Longer-term solutions under discussion include small modular nuclear reactors and large-scale renewables paired with high-capacity batteries, but those options remain several years from commercial readiness.
Bloom is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on Feb. 26. Consensus estimates call for roughly $1.9 billion in 2025 revenue and $2.46 billion in 2026, though analysts caution that share-price swings are likely to continue. Potential catalysts include additional orders from Oracle and AEP, and the possibility that Google, Microsoft or Meta could adopt Bloom’s cells to power future AI campuses. For now, investors betting on Bloom are wagering that its first-mover position in dedicated data-center power will hold long enough to convert a robust pipeline into sustained profits.
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