From Mars Missions to Powering the AI Boom
Bloom Energy’s remarkable 1,000% stock surge over the past year represents one of the most dramatic success stories in clean energy technology. The company’s journey began with aerospace engineer KR Sridhar’s work at NASA, where he developed technology to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen for potential Mars colonization. When space exploration funding declined after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Sridhar pivoted his expertise toward solving Earth’s energy challenges, co-founding Ion America in 2001—later renamed Bloom Energy.
The timing of Bloom’s breakthrough couldn’t be more perfect. As global energy markets undergo significant shifts, including recent changes in global oil import patterns, the demand for reliable, clean power solutions has never been greater. Bloom’s fuel cell technology addresses precisely this need, particularly for the rapidly expanding AI data center industry that requires massive, immediate power generation capacity.
The Perfect Storm: AI Revolution Meets Power Constraints
The launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 created an unprecedented demand for computational power that traditional energy infrastructure couldn’t satisfy. Data centers typically face two major challenges: securing truly reliable power and obtaining that power immediately. Conventional power solutions—whether gas-fired turbines, nuclear plants, or grid connections—require years to develop and connect. Bloom’s fuel cells can be deployed and operational within months, providing a critical solution to the AI industry’s urgent power needs.
“That’s when we said, ‘Everything that we’ve been telling the world is going to happen is now going to accelerate,'” Sridhar told Fortune. The CEO noted that while renewable energy sources like wind and solar face intermittency issues even with battery storage, and traditional power plants require years to build, fuel cells offer both a bridge solution and potential permanent power source.
Technology Breakthrough: Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Bloom’s solid oxide fuel cells represent a significant advancement in fuel cell technology. Unlike traditional fuel cells that require expensive precious metals, corrosive acids, or difficult-to-contain molten materials, Bloom’s cells use lower-cost ceramics and operate at temperatures above 800 degrees Celsius, delivering much greater electrical efficiency.
The technology converts natural gas, hydrogen, or biogas into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process rather than combustion. When using green hydrogen, the process is completely zero-carbon. Even with natural gas, the cells produce significantly cleaner energy than conventional gas turbines. The modular nature of the fuel cells allows them to scale up or down as needed and even be relocated when grid power becomes available.
Market Traction and Major Partnerships
Bloom’s market capitalization has skyrocketed from $2.5 billion to approximately $28 billion over the past year, driven by major data center deals with industry giants including Oracle, American Electric Power, Equinix, and Brookfield Asset Management. The Brookfield partnership, announced October 13, represents a $5 billion commitment to power AI factories globally, including expansion into European markets.
The company has deployed 1.5 gigawatts of fuel cells to date—enough to power 1.2 million homes—with demand growing daily. Bloom aims to scale production to 10 gigawatts annually from its manufacturing facilities in Fremont, California, and Newark, Delaware. This expansion comes as global digital payment infrastructure expands rapidly, creating additional demand for reliable data center power.
Competitive Landscape and Strategic Advantages
While competitors like FuelCell Energy, Doosan Group’s HyAxiom, and Plug Power offer variations on fuel cell technology, Bloom maintains significant advantages. According to Wood Mackenzie senior microgrid research analyst Elham Akhavan, “Bloom led fuel cell deployment across North America way before data center demand arrived. It’s a prime power solution in a very small footprint, and rest of the land is available for the data centers.”
Marina Domingues of Rystad Energy highlighted Bloom’s strategic positioning: “Bloom bet on the stationary power path, and they also had strong relationships with some of the traditional data center market. That allows them some competitive advantages against their peers.” The company benefits from domestic manufacturing capabilities at a time when onshoring and tariffs are becoming increasingly important, as well as early focus on stationary power while competitors prioritized transportation applications.
Financial Position and Growth Trajectory
Despite the stock surge, Bloom remains unprofitable, reporting a $29 million net loss in 2024, though this represents significant improvement from the approximately $300 million loss in 2023. The company reported a $66 million loss in the first half of 2025.
Sridhar remains optimistic about achieving profitability: “We are not one of these companies that has to invest, invest, invest. We’ve already done that part the last 20 years. We have the flywheel spinning already. Accelerating is going to take less and less energy.” The company’s strategy of building identical manufacturing plants enables rapid scaling to meet demand while providing faster returns on investment.
Future Outlook: Urban Data Centers and Global Expansion
While much attention focuses on massive hyperscale data centers in rural areas, Sridhar sees even greater potential in urban environments. “The only two raw materials [that AI needs] are data and electricity,” he noted. “It’s extremely electricity intense. They have to produce their own power on site.”
As data centers move closer to population centers, fuel cells become essential because, as Sridhar explained, “no city has the distribution network that can accommodate those kinds of big [electricity] loads.” He cited Memphis, Tennessee, where public concern about emissions from data center power generation has grown, emphasizing that “If it’s in your backyard or outside your office window, you want it to be clean.”
The company’s growth aligns with broader global market expansion trends across multiple sectors, demonstrating how technological innovation can create unexpected opportunities across industries. Sridhar’s original vision of supporting life on Mars has evolved into solving Earth’s most pressing energy challenges, proving that sometimes the most ambitious dreams lead to the most practical solutions.
“It’s a 24-year journey for an overnight success,” Sridhar reflected. “I’m glad it’s in my lifetime.” As the AI revolution continues to accelerate, Bloom Energy appears perfectly positioned to power the digital transformation while driving the transition to cleaner, more reliable energy systems worldwide.
Based on reporting by {‘uri’: ‘fortune.com’, ‘dataType’: ‘news’, ‘title’: ‘Fortune’, ‘description’: ‘Unrivaled access, premier storytelling, and the best of business since 1930.’, ‘location’: {‘type’: ‘place’, ‘geoNamesId’: ‘5128581’, ‘label’: {‘eng’: ‘New York City’}, ‘population’: 8175133, ‘lat’: 40.71427, ‘long’: -74.00597, ‘country’: {‘type’: ‘country’, ‘geoNamesId’: ‘6252001’, ‘label’: {‘eng’: ‘United States’}, ‘population’: 310232863, ‘lat’: 39.76, ‘long’: -98.5, ‘area’: 9629091, ‘continent’: ‘Noth America’}}, ‘locationValidated’: False, ‘ranking’: {‘importanceRank’: 213198, ‘alexaGlobalRank’: 5974, ‘alexaCountryRank’: 2699}}. This article aggregates information from publicly available sources. All trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners.
