Shares of Bloom Energy jumped sharply Monday after the company announced a major partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to supply power for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
The deal marks one of the most significant investments yet aimed at addressing the growing energy demands of AI infrastructure.
Brookfield to invest up to $5 Billion in “AI factories”
Under the agreement, Brookfield will invest up to $5 billion to deploy Bloom Energy’s fuel cell technology, marking the first project under Brookfield’s strategy to build out global power and computing infrastructure for AI.
The two firms plan to design and construct what they are calling “AI factories”—dedicated sites combining compute and power capacity—across several regions, including one in Europe expected to be unveiled before the end of the year.
In the collaboration, Bloom Energy will serve as the preferred power provider for Brookfield’s AI facilities.
Bloom’s proprietary fuel cells generate electricity on-site using natural gas or hydrogen, allowing rapid deployment without relying on traditional grid connections.
This flexibility has become increasingly critical as AI companies confront the challenge of securing sufficient power to support their expanding data center operations.
The market responded swiftly to the news: Bloom Energy shares surged more than 26% in premarket trading.
Fuel cells offer fast, off-grid power for growing AI demands
Bloom Energy has already deployed hundreds of megawatts of its fuel cell systems through partnerships with utilities such as American Electric Power and data center operators including Equinix and Oracle, according to the company.
Fuel cells are gaining attention as a scalable, low-emission solution to the power constraints facing AI and cloud computing firms.
Unlike traditional power plants that feed electricity into the grid, Bloom’s systems can operate “behind the meter”—directly at the site where power is consumed.
This approach reduces dependence on the aging US electric grid, which has struggled to expand capacity fast enough to keep pace with demand.
Sikander Rashid, Brookfield’s global head of AI infrastructure, said off-grid power deployment is becoming “essential to closing the grid gap for AI factories.”
Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridhar added that the AI sector must approach its infrastructure buildout with the same discipline as industrial manufacturing.
“AI infrastructure must be built like a factory—with purpose, speed, and scale,” Sridhar said.
AI’s power problem draws industry-wide focus
The partnership underscores a growing recognition within the technology sector that AI’s rapid growth is outpacing existing energy systems.
The push to build massive, power-intensive data centers has strained utilities and raised concerns about rising consumer electricity prices.
Companies such as Nvidia and OpenAI recently revealed plans to construct 10 gigawatts of new data center capacity—roughly equivalent to the electricity consumed by New York City on a hot summer day.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that AI companies will increasingly need to produce their own power to meet demand efficiently and stabilize costs.
“Data center self-generated power could move a lot faster than putting it on the grid and we have to do that,” Huang said in an interview on Oct. 8.
With the Brookfield partnership, Bloom Energy has positioned itself at the center of that transition—providing the technology needed to bridge the growing divide between AI’s accelerating compute requirements and the limits of traditional energy infrastructure.
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