Wednesday, September 30, 2026. The most interesting trade in the market today is not a chip stock. It is a power company. Bloom Energy surged roughly 11% in the morning session, landing among the day’s biggest gainers after bullish analyst commentary on surging demand, capacity expansion, and a raised price target, Simply Wall St reported, with Investor’s Business Daily also flagging the near-11% jump.
Here is the simple version of why. Artificial intelligence runs on electricity, and the industry is consuming it faster than anyone expected. U.S. AI data centers are projected to increase their electricity demand by 755% by 2029, from 9.19 gigawatts in 2025 to 78.57 gigawatts, a surge that threatens to outpace current and planned power supply, Pluang reported, citing industry data. Bloom Energy builds solid-oxide fuel cells that generate electricity on-site, around the clock, letting data centers get powered up without waiting years for grid connections. In a world where power has become the defining bottleneck for the AI buildout, that is a product people are willing to pay for.
The numbers behind the story are striking. Bloom reported second-quarter revenue of $1.06 billion, up 166% year over year, with a 17.1% operating margin and $175 million in free cash flow. Management then raised its 2026 guidance to $3.9 to $4.2 billion in revenue and $800 to $900 million in operating income, supported by a growing backlog and strategic partnerships, Pluang reported.
Wall Street is taking notice, though not without arguments. RBC Capital Markets analyst Chris Dendrinos maintained an Outperform rating with a $335 price target, implying more than 25% upside, arguing that Bloom’s fuel-cell technology is well positioned to meet rising AI power demand and that manufacturing expansion could let the company capture that growth, SKN Finance reported. The broader analyst community is far more cautious: the average price target sits around $283, which would imply substantial downside, and shares trade at roughly 140 times forward earnings, leaving little room for disappointment, SKN Finance reported.
The rally has been building all year. The stock is up roughly 246% year to date, ad-hoc-news reported, and on Monday the company announced a multi-year partnership with the Philadelphia 76ers that includes jersey sponsorship and a seven-figure community commitment, a sign of a company eager to turn industrial momentum into a household name, ad-hoc-news reported.
Why it matters: this is the AI trade growing up. First investors bought the chips, then the cloud, and now the electricity. When the constraint moves from computing power to actual power, the companies selling electrons matter as much as the companies selling processors. The risk is the price. At 140 times forward earnings, the market is not paying for what Bloom Energy is today. It is paying for what it must become, and growth stories at that altitude can get shaky on any sign the buildout is slowing. What to watch next: whether Bloom’s manufacturing expansion keeps pace with data-center demand, and whether the coming third-quarter results keep justifying the valuation.
