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Anyone keeping their finger on the pulse of the power shortage that's crimping the proliferation of AI data centers has probably heard of Vistra and Bloom Energy.
Vistra is the utility outfit working directly with Meta Platforms and Amazon to power some of their facilities, while Bloom makes and markets equipment that turns natural gas or hydrogen directly into electricity. It sold over $1.0 billion worth of this tech last quarter alone, up 15% year over year.
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A major beneficiary of the artificial intelligence revolution is obscured by these obvious names, however. That's GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV), which recently reported a 96% year-over-year increase in orders for power-generating equipment. Here's a closer look.
Yes, this company is an offshoot of the iconic industrial conglomerate General Electric, which completed a breakup into more manageable pieces back in 2024. GE Vernova is its old power arm, which makes wind turbines, utility-scale grid equipment, hydropower solutions, some nuclear power tech, and, perhaps most importantly of late, natural gas turbines.
And business is good. Its third-quarter top line of $12.6 billion was up 18% (organically) year over year, extending and accelerating a growth trend that's been in place since 2024. Electrification sales technically grew the fastest, but orders for power hardware grew the most.
The real story here, though, is how much future business has already been lined up. Led by orders for power equipment, the company's total orders soared by 96% to $29 billion in Q3, inflating GE Vernova's total backlog to $197 billion. That's a little more than four years' worth of revenue at its current annual revenue run rate.
The company expects this backlog to exceed $200 billion by the end of this year, even as it delivers tech to fulfill some of these orders during the quarter currently underway. The analyst community believes GE Vernova will report fourth-quarter sales of $14 million sometime in January, up 28% from last year's Q4 revenue.
The proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the room is last Wednesday's plunge in shares of GE Vernova, Vistra, Bloom Energy, and plenty of other names in the power production business following the midterm elections, which gave Democrats impending control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Investors appear to believe that the future political landscape could stymie the expansion of the AI data center industry's power footprint. And perhaps it will.
This extreme sell-off is arguably more of a buying opportunity than an omen, though. GE Vernova's energy businesses are largely environmentally friendly or improve power efficiency or both. Recent election results will have little actual impact on the company's business, and they could actually expand demand for its solutions.
Much of its power business isn't vulnerable to a meltdown of the artificial intelligence industry, either. As it noted during its Q3 earnings conference call, only 20% of these customers are data center customers. The other 80% are traditional customers -- like utility companies -- that need this equipment regardless of the economic or political backdrop.
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James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Bloom Energy, GE Vernova, Meta Platforms, and Vistra. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Not Bloom Energy. Not Vistra. This AI Power Stock Just Posted a 96% Jump in Orders. was originally published by The Motley Fool
