Brookfield invests $5 billion in Bloom Energy to support fuel cells for AI data centers

Brookfield Asset Management announced on Monday that it would invest up to five billion dollars in Bloom Energy fuel cell technology for data centers. Companies are looking to cleaner energy sources to meet the demands of artificial intelligence.

Bloom Energy shares were up 31% in premarket trading at $113.72.

As they spend billions on building and expanding their data centers, companies are looking to clean power sources like nuclear, renewables, and fuel cells to meet the demand for AI, Cloud Computing, and digital services.

They said that the two companies were working together to design and deliver AI factories worldwide, including one in Europe, which will be announced by the end of this year.

Brookfield wants to expand Europe's biggest AI infrastructure cluster. Brookfield announced in June that it would invest up to $9.98 billion to build a data center for AI in Sweden. It also committed 20 billion euros to AI projects in France.

Fuel cells are a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional electricity generation. They generate electricity by chemical reactions, rather than combustion. Byproducts may include heat and water depending on the fuel.

Bloom Energy's fuel cell technology has been deployed in data centers through partnerships with American Electric Power Equinix, and Oracle.

(source: Reuters)