New York, July 8, 2026, 15:01 EDT
- Bloom Energy stock dropped Wednesday afternoon after Hunterbrook put out a short report on its supply chain.
- The dispute is over scandium oxide, a rare earth material used in Bloom’s fuel cells, and whether supply tied to China could delay its AI data center expansion.
- Bloom will report its Q2 results after the bell on July 28.
Bloom Energy shares fell Wednesday after Hunterbrook released a short report that questioned the fuel-cell company’s China supply-chain disclosures and whether it can ramp up production to meet AI power demand.
The shares dropped 7.6% to $249.00 by the afternoon, hitting a low earlier at $235.79. The S&P 500 ETF slipped 0.4%. The Nasdaq 100 ETF barely moved. Short sellers are betting the stock falls.
This matters now because Bloom is seen as one of the market’s big AI-power bets. The company, based in San Jose, California, sells solid oxide fuel cells. These systems generate electricity using an electrochemical process instead of burning fuel. Investors have looked at Bloom as a shortcut to provide power to data centers without waiting for grid improvements.
Hunterbrook said its investment arm was short Bloom at the time of publishing and accused the company of depending on China-linked scandium supply. This is despite earlier remarks from CEO K.R. Sridhar that Bloom was not reliant on China. Hunterbrook said it tracked four China-tied paths into Bloom’s supply chain, such as scandium oxide and scandium-containing ceramics and powders routed through intermediary nations.
As of mid-afternoon, Bloom still hadn’t put out a detailed press release to respond. The company did publish a blog post Tuesday, saying it has built a diversified global sourcing set-up and that its current scandium oxide supply chain “can support up to 25 GW per year” in production. Scandium oxide, used in fuel cell materials, is a “tiny ingredient,” the post said, but matters for performance and durability. Bloom Energy
Scandium exports got tougher in China after officials put the metal, its oxide and scandium compounds on a controlled list in April 2025. Exporters now need licenses, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce and the customs office.
Hunterbrook quoted Eric Wachsman, director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute. On Bloom’s scandium supply, he said: “I don’t know of anywhere else they would get it from that’s of the scale that they would need.” He also said purification “tends to be primarily in China.” Hunterbrook
Bloom’s latest annual report said its supply chain isn’t dependent on China, but it also listed China as a source for several parts, like rare earth metals and compounds used by some suppliers. The filing said trade tensions could hit Bloom’s access to those materials. Still, the company doesn’t expect rare earth supplies from China to impact its 2026 output forecast.
The selloff arrived a little more than a week after Bloom and Brookfield bumped up their AI infrastructure financing plan to $25 billion from $5 billion. At the time, Aman Joshi, Bloom’s chief commercial officer, said Bloom was “uniquely positioned” to provide “clean, reliable power” for AI. Brookfield’s Sikander Rashid said the group can offer “end-to-end solutions, from electrons to tokens.” Bloom Energy
Bloom has relied on big customer deals. In April, Oracle said it planned to buy up to 2.8 gigawatts of Bloom fuel-cell systems and had already locked in 1.2 gigawatts with deployment started. Mahesh Thiagarajan, an executive at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, said Bloom’s fuel cells are helping Oracle support demand “across the United States.” Bloom Energy
Analysts were split even before the short seller report landed. Jefferies kept its Hold call on Monday with a $246 target, while UBS came in last week at $350, Benzinga’s analyst tracker shows.
Fuel-cell stocks were down as well, but Bloom slid more than Plug Power, which lost 1.4%, and less than FuelCell Energy, which dropped 12.6%. Vertiv, which sells power and cooling gear for data centers and is seen as an AI-related play, gained 3.2%.
Bears risk getting ahead of themselves if short calls miss the mark and Bloom walks in with supplier info, production updates, or better numbers in the second-quarter report on July 28. The bear case is more direct: if scandium supply, permitting schedules, or customer deployment slip against what investors expect, the AI-power pitch could slow down on revenue and valuation. Bloom said Monday it’s releasing results after the July 28 close with a call set for 5 p.m. ET.
