US private credit platform Industrial Development Funding (IDF) and Oaktree Capital Management have agreed to invest $1.7 billion to support fuel cell developer Bloom Energy in deploying its solid oxide fuel system (SOFC) at Nebius’ AI cloud data centers.

Nebius and Bloom signed an offtake agreement in May to support the company’s AI data center buildout in the US market. As part of the deal, Bloom will supply Nebius with dedicated behind-the-meter power. According to Nebius, Bloom was chosen primarily for its speed to power, clean technology, and ability to support the performance and availability demands of AI workloads.

IDF is the lead developer on the project, with Oaktree taking a minority equity stake.

"By bringing together institutional capital and critical power infrastructure, IDF and Bloom are unlocking the next generation of energy solutions and are proud to help Nebius meet the energy demands of the AI economy," said Nik Nunes, CEO of IDF.

"Oaktree is focused on investing in infrastructure assets delivering critical power to the digital space," added Austin Pearson, Oaktree managing director. "This transaction reflects our confidence in Bloom's fuel cell technology and those relying on it."

The transaction extends an existing partnership between IDF and Bloom Energy, which now spans more than $2.6bn across multiple projects. Morgan Stanley served as the sole tax equity investor and placement agent for the tax equity financing, while MUFG Bank provided the senior debt financing.

Bloom is one of the leading companies specializing in fuel cell solutions for the data center industry. The company’s SOFC fuel cells work by converting fuel into electricity via an electrochemical reaction, rather than combustion, which Bloom claims results in much higher efficiency and lower emissions.

"AI infrastructure customers need more than innovative technology," said Aman Joshi, chief commercial officer of Bloom Energy. "They also need a path to finance and deploy power rapidly. Our collaboration with IDF demonstrates how institutional capital can help accelerate the build-out of AI infrastructure."

The company has already signed several deals in the data center space. Earlier this year, it expanded an agreement with cloud firm Oracle to supply it with up to 2.8GW of capacity. The companies inked a deal last year for an initial 1.2GW of capacity, with deployments currently underway and expected to continue into next year.

Bloom has also signed deals with Equinix for deployments across 19 data centers with a capacity exceeding 100MW, as well as an agreement with US utility American Electric Power for up to 1GW of SOFCs to power AI data centers off-grid.