By Connor Hart
Shares of Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises rose after the company said it received full notice to proceed on a $2.4 billion design-build contract tied to AI data-center power demand.
The stock jumped 22% to $9.91 in premarket trading Wednesday. Through Tuesday's close, shares have risen more than sevenfold over the past year.
The company said before the bell that it will engineer, procure and construct a 1.2-gigawatt facility with Base Electron, an independent power producer backed by Applied Digital. The project will supply electricity to Applied Digital's artificial intelligence data-center campuses under separate long-term power agreements.
The facility will include four 300-megawatt natural gas-fired boilers and steam turbine generator systems. Siemens Energy will supply the steam turbine equipment.
Chief Executive Kenneth Young said the contract underscores the role B&W plays in supporting the rapidly expanding power needs of large-scale AI data centers.
"With data processing demand growing at an unprecedented pace, B&W is uniquely positioned to provide the proven, flexible and redundant power solutions these mission-critical operations require, and deploy them faster than traditional combined-cycle or simple-cycle gas technologies," he added.
The notice came as B&W swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $9.2 million, or 5 cents a share, from a loss of $63.2 million, or 71 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue was roughly flat, at $161 million.
Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 04, 2026 08:36 ET (13:36 GMT)
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