$1.7B Bloom Energy deal backs Nebius AI power

What is the $1.7 billion Bloom Energy deal for Nebius AI infrastructure?

IDF and Oaktree are funding Bloom Energy fuel cells to supply Nebius with on-site power for AI cloud operations.

What changed

Industrial Development Funding, or IDF, and Oaktree announced a $1.7 billion project investment to deploy Bloom Energy fuel cells for Nebius AI infrastructure. IDF is the lead developer, Oaktree is the minority equity investor, Morgan Stanley is the sole tax equity investor and placement agent, and MUFG Bank is providing senior debt.

The project will use behind-the-meter power, meaning electricity is generated at or near the data center instead of being drawn only from the grid. That setup is meant to give Nebius more control over power availability and speed up deployment of AI computing capacity.

• Bloom fuel cells will supply dedicated electricity for Nebius AI workloads
• IDF says it has worked with Bloom on more than $2.6 billion in projects
• Oaktree said it focuses on infrastructure assets that power digital operations
• The financing stack combines equity, tax equity and senior debt

Why it matters

AI training and inference consume large amounts of electricity, and power access is now a bottleneck for new data center buildouts. Projects like this let operators add capacity without waiting solely on utility upgrades or new transmission builds.

For developers and investors, the deal shows how infrastructure capital is being structured around AI demand. The mix of fuel cells, tax equity and project debt gives energy vendors a financing path for faster deployments, while cloud operators get a clearer route to secure power.

The transaction also extends Bloom’s role in AI infrastructure beyond hardware sales. It ties the company’s fuel cell systems to a broader financing model that can be repeated for other large computing facilities.

The key question now is whether more AI operators will copy Nebius and buy power this way, rather than waiting on the grid.