Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) stock has soared over the last year, with shares up over 1,300%. The surge has helped co-founder and CEO KR Sridhar to be named a new billionaire. Here’s a look at the unique pathway Sridhar took with oil and space before Bloom Energy and what’s next for the company.
Oil to NASA to Powering Data Centers
Bloom Energy stock has soared and the company is continuing to beat earnings expectations from analysts. None of that would be possible if not for co-founder KR Sridhar.
With an estimated 1.7% stake in the company, the 65-year-old is worth $1.7 billion according to a new estimate from Bloomberg. While that doesn’t get him on the list of the 500 richest in the world yet, needing $7.66 billion to make that list, it shows how far along the CEO has come.
Sridhar was born in India and, as a teenager, faced the oil crisis in the early 1980s, which led to a curiosity for producing ethanol. The young entrepreneur recalls learning to convert waste into ethanol to power an engine, a technique that sparked an interest in the energy sector.
The future billionaire came to the United States to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning a Ph.D in mechanical engineering.
Sridhar also came to love the space sector during his time in school and later joined the University of Arizona, where he taught aerospace and mechanical engineering. While at school, Sridhar also helped research the sustainability of human life on Mars with NASA.
Falling out of love with the space sector, Sridhar learned how to use solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen to help create an early version of a fuel cell sold by Bloom Energy.
"I quit doing my NASA work because I believe this particular technology can change the world," Sridhar previously told Businessweek in 2009.
Bloom Energy was founded in 2001, focused on manufacturing fuel cells known as "Bloom Boxes."
"What I predicted was not AI. What I predicted was a digital transformation that is going to happen. And what I predicted was, by now, for the first time in human history, electricity rather than heat as a form of energy becomes the dominant energy that we need," Sridhar told Bloomberg.
Along with the 1.7% stake in the company, Sridhar owns over 300,000 performance-based restricted shares that are based on revenue targets. The 65-year-old told Bloomberg that he’s more worried about the company’s execution than the stock price.
"I don’t worry about the stock price. Markets will decide what they need to do. We have to keep executing. We have to keep telling our story. It’s for the market to decide where we fit."
Along with his stake in Bloom Energy, Sridhar also sits on the Board of Directors of C3.ai Inc. (NYSE:AI), a company in which he holds stock options.
Bloom Energy’s Booming Business
Bloom’s unique fuel cells can produce less carbon emissions than other methods and also have a version that runs on hydrogen with no emissions. The company also focuses on speed, getting its systems up and running in six months or less, which may be why big technology companies like Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) have signed deals with Bloom Energy.
Bloom also has a deal with Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM) to deploy Bloom devices at data centers.
In April, Bloom Energy reported first quarter total revenue of $751.05 million, up 130.4% year-over-year. Product revenue of $654.4 million was up 208.4% year-over-year.
The company raised its full-year guidance for revenue and earnings per share after the quarterly results.
With a recent history of beating analyst estimates and raising guidance, shares could continue to climb and boost Sridhar’s wealth.
Photo by Michael Vi via Shutterstock
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