Oracle taps Bloom for 2.8 GW of fuel cells to keep datacenter binge going
With grid hookups slow and turbines scarce, on-site power is starting to look less optional
Bloom Energy says it has an expanded remit from Oracle to provide the energy for its US datacenter buildout plans with up to 2.8 GW of fuel cell systems.
Big Red has already contracted for an initial 1.2 GW of capacity, according to Bloom, with deployment already underway this year and likely to continue into 2027.
This builds on an agreement drawn up last year, under which Bloom claims it delivered a fully operational fuel cell system to power an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) site in just 55 days, rather than the 90 days stipulated.
Oracle has agreed to a network of humongous server farms thanks to arrangements such as the $300 billion contract signed with OpenAI to provide it with infrastructure for AI processing. This will equate to roughly 4.5 GW of compute capacity over the next five years, if all goes according to stated plan.
But others are also joining in the datacenter build boom, and America's creaking power grid is struggling to keep up with the unanticipated extra demand for electricity. Requests for connection to the electricity grid may face a seven-year wait, for example – although the energy secretary last year took steps to try to address this.
One answer is for server farms to generate their own energy on-site, as expounded by energy infrastructure biz Schneider Electric some time ago. The typical solution is to use gas turbines, as Elon Musk's xAI did at its Colossus campus. However, there is such high demand for this equipment that there is now a shortage, leaving customers facing long lead times.
Fuel cells are another option, but they can be expensive to deploy – partly because some types use costly catalyst materials – and if hydrogen is used as the fuel, it introduces storage, infrastructure, and safety challenges.
Bloom says its expanded deal with Oracle reflects a shift toward distributed, on-site generation as a critical component of modern digital infrastructure, as fuel cell systems can be deployed faster than traditional power solutions and reduce project risk.
The Register asked both companies how much this new contract is worth. We also asked for confirmation of whether the fuel cells are using hydrogen or natural gas, and whether this is supplied to the Oracle sites by truck or pipeline. We will update this article if we receive a response.
Oracle was recently in the headlines over warnings that its datacenter spending commitments could lead to price hikes for customers, and reports that it and OpenAI had ditched plans to expand their flagship Stargate facility at Abilene, Texas, over financing issues and OpenAI's "inability to forecast demand effectively." ®