New York, June 18, 2026, 17:03 EDT
- FuelCell Energy traded at $24.04, up $3.99, or roughly 20%. The stock outpaced the market with a sharp move on Thursday.
- The rally isn’t about earnings now — it’s more on bets the company can lock in its data-center power pipeline as firm contracts.
- What’s at stake: FuelCell is coming off a quarter with revenue down, net loss deeper and backlog trimmed again.
FuelCell Energy shares surged almost 20% Thursday, adding to a choppy run for the clean-power stock. Investors are buying in as they look for possible electricity suppliers to power artificial intelligence data centers.
The move stood out, beating the broader market. The Nasdaq climbed 1.87% and the S&P 500 added 1.06%, with semiconductor names and an easing in oil prices giving support, according to Reuters.
FuelCell shares picked up again this week, up 1.47% Wednesday to $20.04 after jumping 12.86% on Tuesday. The stock’s late Thursday quote kept it just under the May 26 high of $27.69.
New funding is backing a straightforward bet: data centers want more power, faster than grid resources can keep up. FuelCell’s modular 12.5-megawatt fuel-cell unit is pitched for on-site supply at data centers and AI buildouts where the grid can’t deliver. CEO Jason Few said FuelCell is working on “extending the grid to the data center.” SEC
The numbers aren’t getting better. FuelCell posted $35.6 million in revenue for the second quarter, a drop of about 5% from last year, with a net loss of $77.6 million. Backlog came in at $1.14 billion, off 9.9%. Its sales pipeline—which covers potential but unsigned business—jumped 267% from the first quarter to 4 gigawatts.
Analysts are divided on what to make of that pipeline. Jefferies’ Dushyant Ailani upped his price target on the stock to $16 from $7.20 and stuck with a Hold, saying the pipeline is “becoming hard to ignore,” but pointed out that conversion is still the main thing to watch, according to TipRanks/The Fly. TipRanks
Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas upgraded FuelCell to Buy from Hold and boosted the price target to $30 from $12, according to Investing.com. Gianarikas is more confident the company might land a data-center deal before the fiscal year wraps up.
This wasn’t a one-off move. Bloom Energy added close to 15%, Plug Power jumped almost 8%, and Ballard Power saw a gain of over 5%. Traders pushed up a group of fuel-cell and hydrogen-related stocks together.
But the downside is clear. FuelCell’s pipeline isn’t booked revenue, and management says those discussions may never turn into deals. The company is moving forward with a $200 million to $275 million expansion at its Torrington, Connecticut plant even as it stays in the red. It also reported stock sales during and after the quarter, a move that can dilute current shareholders.
The stock is being driven by optionality at the moment, not by what’s on the income statement. Investors are still paying up for AI exposure, but that could flip fast if orders don’t show up.
U.S. exchanges shut Friday for Juneteenth. Traders will have to wait until Monday to see if the move sticks or just reflected a squeeze ahead of the holiday.
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