Bloom Energy Is Riding The Data Center Boom To A $25 Bill…
Bloom Energy is moving directly into the power bottleneck. Plug Power is focusing on its existing hydrogen businesses and aiming to achieve profitability first.
So which strategy will pay off sooner?
How Bloom Energy’s fuel cells landed a $25 billion boost
Let’s start with Bloom Energy’s core product: the Bloom Energy Server.
The concept is simple. In many existing power generation technologies, fuel is burned, and the resulting heat, in whatever form it takes, is converted into kinetic energy. That energy drives a turbine, a generator, or another mechanical system that ultimately produces electricity. It’s a lengthy process, even without all the trouble of storing, transporting, and receiving the generated electricity.
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NYSE: BE
Bloom Energy
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
81/100
Today’s Change
(-5.39%) $-15.13
Current Price
$265.63
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$78BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded s outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded s. Implied market cap may vary.
Day’s Range
$265.00 – $285.10
52wk Range
$61.37 – $351.28
Volume
73.5M
Avg Vol
16.2M
Gross Margin
31.22%
Bloom’s Energy Server skips combustion entirely, using solid oxide fuel cells to turn natural gas, biogas, or hydrogen directly into electricity. Installed on-site, it also bypasses the grid, eliminating the need for substations, transmission lines, or interconnection queues. That makes it a golden opportunity for data centers.
Bloom has also steadily pushed efficiency and durability gains across successive generations of its Energy Server. Furthermore, in the company’s second-quarter 2026 earnings release, CEO KR Sridhar said that every major U.S. hyperscaler and more than a dozen U.S. neoclouds, AI labs, and colocation data center operators have validated and approved Bloom’s power solutions for their AI factories. “Bloom is now a standard for AI onsite power,” he said.
Bloom also has a major financing advantage. Brookfield Asset Management just expanded its agreement with Bloom to fund AI-related power infrastructure projects, increasing the total to $25 billion. That gives Bloom access to substantial third-party project financing.
Wall Street has certainly taken notice. A consensus among 26 analysts rates the stock a “Moderate Buy,” with up to 35% potential upside based on a $354 high target price.
Why Plug Power is sticking with forklifts over data centers
Plug Power’s progress looks smaller in scale, and its focus is entirely different. Both companies have a real technological parallel in their top products — they both offer fuel cells that avoid the combustion cycle for energy generation. This is why many investors tend to lump these two companies together. However, Plug Power’s primary product, the GenDrive Hydrogen Fuel Cell, squarely targets an industrial customer base centered on forklifts, pallet jacks, and other warehouse vehicles.
That’s not to say the company has no presence in the data center industry. In July 2026, Plug Power announced a technical collaboration with Microsoft to test its proton exchange membrane fuel cells as a potential replacement for diesel backup generators.
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NASDAQ: PLUG
Plug Power
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
38/100
Today’s Change
(-1.42%) $-0.03
Current Price
$2.09
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$2.9BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded s outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded s. Implied market cap may vary.
Day’s Range
$2.02 – $2.17
52wk Range
$1.70 – $4.58
Volume
55.2M
Avg Vol
54.6M
Gross Margin
-1854.57%
However, CEO Jose Luis Crespo said on the 2026 second-quarter earnings call that Plug remains focused on material handling, electrolyzers, and hydrogen production, and hasn’t made any decisions on data centers.
To many investors, that suggests the company isn’t exactly rearing up to chase the AI hype, many other companies these days.
Wall Street has a consensus “Hold” rating for Plug Power based on 20 analysts. Now, to be clear, not prioritizing the AI boom isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Plug Power’s growth story will just be very different from Bloom Energy’s.
If you want more exposure to the AI power boom, Bloom Energy is the clear choice. Its deep-pocketed backing is exactly why it’s positioned to capture this moment, while Plug Power’s decision to sit on the sidelines for now is a bet on a very different growth story.
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About the Author
Rick is a Wall Street Journal best-selling author with over 20 years of experience trading stocks and options. The most authoritative publications, including Good Morning America, Washington Post, Yahoo Finance, MSN, Business Insider, NBC, FOX, CBS, and ABC News, cover his work. His passion is business, and he works tirelessly to deliver content in an easy-to-understand manner. In 2018, Rick wrote The Financially Independent Millennial to inspire his readers with his story about becoming financially independent at age 35 despite not learning about money when he was younger. His books are easy to read and often refer to key points that “He would tell his younger self.” When not thinking about business, Rick writes (mainly about cruise ship travel) for his travel blog and is an enthusiast of fast cars, technology, & cooking.
Stocks Mentioned
Bloom Energy
NYSE: BE
$265.63
(-5.39%)-$15.13
Motley Fool Stock Advisor’s Latest Pick
—% Avg Return
Microsoft
NASDAQ: MSFT
$493.78
(-0.80%)-$3.97
Plug Power
NASDAQ: PLUG
$2.09
(-1.42%)-$0.03
Brookfield Asset Management
NYSE: BAM
$46.06
(+1.41%)+$0.64
*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.
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