Oracle has expanded its partnership with fuel cell developer Bloom Energy, agreeing to procure up to 2.8GW of Bloom’s Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems.

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.

“By rapidly deploying Bloom’s reliable, efficient fuel cell energy, we are quickly meeting the demands of our customers across the United States,” said Mahesh Thiagarajan, executive vice president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “Together, Bloom and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are building the power foundation and AI infrastructure to accelerate American AI leadership.”

Bloom is the leading company 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. The cells are fuel agnostic. “Our platform works with natural gas, biogas, and hydrogen,” Aman Joshi, CCO at Bloom, told DCD.

According to the company, Bloom’s fuel cells are built to support higher-density AI workloads more efficiently, with a technology platform aligned to emerging standards such as 800V DC.

“By rapidly deploying Bloom’s reliable, efficient fuel cell energy, we are quickly meeting the demands of our customers across the United States,” said Mahesh Thiagarajan, executive vice president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “Together, Bloom and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are building the power foundation and AI infrastructure to accelerate American AI leadership.”

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.

Last year, the company inked a $5 billion AI infrastructure partnership with global investment firm Brookfield, under which Brookfield will invest in the firm to support the development and deployment of its technology.