Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) shares jumped as much as 15% in a single trading session, a day after falling 9% in a broader AI selloff. The stock reached a three-month high after the rally. Two developments helped. The City of Fremont said Bloom bought a 158,000-square-foot building to expand production, almost the same size as its existing 164,000-square-foot plant there.
Separately, Ameren Missouri released a 20-year energy plan that calls for 500 MW of natural-gas fuel cells by 2030. Ameren hasn’t named a supplier, so Bloom still has to win that business. Still, as one of the largest fuel-cell makers in the U.S., Bloom is a natural contender. A utility planning this much fuel-cell power also suggests the market is growing beyond data centers. Bloom Energy ranks No. 7 among our 12 high-flying stocks to invest in. But which six stocks are flying even higher than BE?
Why I Think the Factory News Matters More
In my view, the factory purchase is the most important part of the news. Bloom’s revenue topped $1 billion for the first time last quarter, up 166% from a year earlier. It also expects sales to roughly double this year. The company is already working to double its yearly production capacity at Fremont from about 1 GW to 2 GW by the end of 2026. Buying a second building that size suggests management expects demand to keep outgrowing that.
Ameren’s plan matters for a different reason. When Oracle recently issued a notice that could delay payments on Project Jupiter, Bloom said its fuel cells could be sold elsewhere if needed. A utility planning hundreds of megawatts of fuel cells shows where those other buyers could come from. Until now, most of Bloom’s growth has come from individual companies and data centers. Utilities would open up a much larger market.
Bloom’s Price Already Assumes Fast Growth
Expanding is fairly cheap for Bloom. Each extra gigawatt costs about $100 million to $150 million. So going from 2 GW to 5 GW would cost roughly $300 million to $450 million. That’s well within reach with $2.72 billion in cash. The company’s forward earnings multiple of about 135 times looks steep, but analysts expect rapid growth. Earnings are forecast to skyrocket 256% this year, 82% in 2027, 58% in 2028, and 33% in 2029. That growth brings the multiple down quickly. Even so, the stock remains expensive for now. To me, the factory is a smart bet, but Bloom needs opportunities like Ameren’s to turn into real orders to justify it.
Hedge funds were piling in well before this news. Funds holding Bloom rose from 91 in Q1 to 116 in Q2, while their stakes more than doubled from $4.5 billion to $10.8 billion, helped partly by the stock’s rally.
Bloom is clearly building for demand it believes is coming. If utilities like Ameren follow through, that bet should pay off. Until then, the stock leaves little room for disappointment.
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