In the race to power AI data centers, the fastest companies win. Within the fuel cell industry, which promises cleaner and more efficient conversion of fuel to electricity, companies with big hyperscaler contracts have sped ahead of those that haven’t.
FuelCell Energy has more than doubled and Bloom Energy has more than tripled in stock value since the beginning of the year, reflecting investor confidence in major data center deals. Conversely, Ballard Power Systems and Plug Power, whose fuel cells are less suited to data center applications, failed to keep pace with the 12% gain in the S&P 500 in 2026.
In the case of fuel cells, whose widespread use became popular in the 2000s as part of the global clean energy transition, technologies and business models that lent themselves to data center applications have been rewarded, which mirrors broader market trends.
“The key is meaningful announcements with hyperscalers,” said Nicholas Amicucci, a stock analyst at Evercore ISI. “Their ability to expand manufacturing capacity to accommodate these large loads” has contributed to the success of companies that can meet energy demand with consistent supply, Amicucci added.
The key to fuel cells’ application to data centers lies in “time to power,” which refers to how long it takes for a new facility to access the electricity it needs. New gas turbines take years to manufacture and install, whereas fuel cells can be deployed within months.
Bloom Energy, has positioned itself as a leader in scalable and easily deployable energy solutions for data centers, with a market cap of over $85 billion. Its solid-oxide fuel cells often use natural gas but can chemically convert a range of fuel sources into electricity, producing no air pollutants and minimal noise, making them a sound response to the public outcry over data centers, especially in populated areas.
“Pushback and NIMBYism [against data centers] have key sticking points: noise pollution, water usage and water quality, and air pollution. Bloom’s solution addresses all three of those,” said Amicucci. “You need something that’s quiet and doesn’t even have the optics of using a lot of water.”
Bloom Energy achieved $1 billion revenue in the second quarter of 2026, on the heels of a major financing partnership with Brookfield Asset Management and a massive, multi-gigawatt deal with Oracle in April. On Sept. 4, it gained 10% on the announcement that it would be added to the S&P 500 index, which took effect on Sept. 21, at which point Bloom stock closed at $272.89.
“Bloom is well positioned to meet the time to power needs of data center customers,” wrote Morningstar analyst Joshua Aguilar in a July note. “Bloom’s long-term sales trajectory is highly dependent on data center customers.”
The other success story, FuelCell Energy, saw one of the most dramatic stock price increases in 2026: the mid-cap company soared 21% on June 30 after announcing a data center deal, extending its year-to-date performance to almost quintupling in value. This spike was followed by a sharp correction, largely owing to a stock selloff and a public offering from the company. Despite this extreme volatility, the company is still up more than double this year, closing at $16.90 Tuesday.
Plug Power and Ballard Power Systems are both hydrogen fuel cell companies whose more vertical approach has hindered their ability to orient their business models toward data centers. Their focus on building out the green hydrogen ecosystem, necessary because their proton exchange membrane fuel cells cannot use natural gas as an input, is capital-intensive, whereas the AI data center expansion requires cheap and continuous power generation.
This inability to plug into the data center power supply has left these companies in the dark compared to their other fuel cell peers. As of Tuesday, Plug Power is down 3% year-to-date, while Ballard Power Systems dropped 15% year-to-date.
“They haven’t shifted their strategy nearly as well as Bloom has to using natural gas as an input,” said Amicucci. “It’s a heroic effort to try and basically displace the natural gas infrastructure.”
With data centers projected to compose approximately 10% of total energy demand by 2030, flexible solutions like fuel cells have gained a great deal of attention. Even energy giant GE Vernova has begun researching its own solid-oxide fuel cells, a credible signal that this technology is here to stay.
“The US grid has not seen the kind of growth we see now since the 1950s,” when air conditioning was invented,” said retail investor OutspokenGeek on Substack, who primarily writes about Bloom Energy. “If Bloom becomes even an X percent market share in the long-term power business, that’s a threat to larger companies.”