Brookfield, Bloom Energy Sign $5 Billion Deal to Power AI Data Centers with Fuel Cells
Brookfield Asset Management and energy solutions provider Bloom Energy announced the launch of a new strategic partnership, including plans for Brookfield to invest up to $5 billion to deploy Bloom’s fuel cell technology across its global AI datacenters.
Founded in 2001, California-based Bloom Energy provides solutions for businesses and communities to meet energy demands through distributed generation of electricity and hydrogen. The company’s solutions include solid oxide fuel cells that provide lower-carbon power, producing electricity through an electrochemical process that combines hydrogen and oxygen.
According to the companies, the new agreement comes as power demand from AI data centers is anticipated to grow rapidly over the next few years, with fuel cells emerging as a key technology to address the increasing energy needs, with reliable, scalable and clean onsite power that can be rapidly deployed without legacy grids.
To date, Bloom Energy has deployed hundreds of megawatts of its fuel cell technology to data centers through partnerships with American Electric Power, Equinix, and Oracle.
KR Sridhar, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Bloom Energy, said:
“AI infrastructure must be built like a factory—with purpose, speed, and scale. Unlike traditional factories, AI factories demand massive power, rapid deployment and real-time load responsiveness that legacy grids cannot support. The lean AI factory is achieved with power, infrastructure, and compute designed in sync from day one. That principle guides our collaboration with Brookfield to reimagine the data center of the future. Together, we are creating a new blueprint for powering AI at scale.”
Under the new partnership, Brookfield and Bloom Energy said that they are actively collaborating on the design and delivery of AI factories globally. The companies said that the partnership’s first site in Europe will be announced this year.
The new partnership marks Brookfield’s first investment under its dedicated AI Infrastructure strategy. The launch of the strategy was released recently by Brookfield in a letter to shareholders , with the firm calling AI infrastructure “ one of the defining investment themes of the decade,” combining three key megatrends, or the “three Ds,” Digitalization, Decarbonization, and Deglobalization.
Sikander Rashid, Global Head of AI Infrastructure at Brookfield, said:
“Behind-the-meter power solutions are essential to closing the grid gap for AI factories. Bloom’s advanced fuel cell technology gives us the unique capability to design and construct modern AI factories with a holistic and innovative approach to power needs. As the world’s largest AI infrastructure investor, this partnership adds a powerful new tool to our global growth strategy, especially in a grid-constrained market environment.”