AI’s Energy Crunch Has Investors Searching for Next IPO Winners

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(Bloomberg) — The artificial intelligence boom has a power problem, and Wall Street is betting billions on companies that promise to solve it — even if some of the technology hasn’t been fully developed yet. 

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At least 10 power infrastructure and clean technology companies have gone public so far this year, including geothermal firm Fervo Energy Co., which soared 35% on its first day of trading. The firms raised upwards of $11.6 billion so far in 2026, the most on record for the sector.

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The IPO market has been heating up with data centers in the US expected to need more than 77 gigawatts of capacity in 2030, up from 41 gigawatts in 2025, according to BloombergNEF estimates.

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But the enthusiasm comes with risks. Wild swings in SpaceX stock after Elon Musk’s aerospace and AI conglomerate made its historic debut warn of the perils investors face when they make bets on high-risk, high-reward clean energy.

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“You’ll have likely some winners and roadkill along the way,” said Jeff Osborne, a managing director at TD Cowen. 

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Cash-rich firms like Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., with their willingness to tolerate risk and underwrite innovation, have juiced the rush to list.

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“There’s going to be more of it, and it’s going to be led and enabled by the hyperscale community,” said Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith, referring to investment in clean tech. “This is the culmination of years of grinding work to commercialize technologies and find offtakers.”

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When private capital isn’t enough, not-yet-profitable companies turn to the public market. Fervo raised $1.89 billion from eager investors in May — even though its geothermal technology hasn’t yet reached a commercial scale.

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New technologies “don’t have access to the same capitalization tools,” said David Ulrey, Fervo’s chief financial officer.

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Fervo and other geothermal firms have benefited from a supportive White House. President Donald Trump has been even more vocal in touting nuclear power plants as a key source of energy for data centers. Even the renewable technologies that Trump has attacked, like wind and solar, can excite markets if they promise to supply AI data centers.

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The same goes for power infrastructure suppliers. Forgent Power Solutions Inc., a maker of electrical equipment and systems for data centers, has more than doubled since its February IPO, while Madison Air Solutions Corp., which sells liquid, hybrid and air cooling products for data centers, raised $2.23 billion in April in the biggest US listing of an industrial firm in close to three decades.  

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The excitement has allowed newly public companies to return to the market. Since its February IPO, Forgent has listed two more equity offerings for roughly $3 billion. Even industry stalwarts are raising more cash. Constellation Energy Corp., the largest nuclear operator in the US, offered shares worth about $3.1 billion in June.