GE Vernova finds itself in a fight it didn't pick, besieged on two fronts.

Shares have been battered as investors fret that an industry-recommended AI development deceleration will hit growth. That new fear adds to worries that AI spending has gone too far too fast, exposing Vernova to canceled orders.

On Friday, Jefferies backed Vernova stock, pointing out that as electricity demand grows, along with Vernova's installed base of power equipment, so does its parts and service revenue. On Monday, GLJ downgraded GE Vernova stock to Sell, saying in part that cash flow has been inflated by deposits received for power turbine orders.

Bernstein analyst Sunaina Ocalan weighed in on the debate on Tuesday. The company is still "wired to win," she says, adding that GE Vernova stock isn't all about data centers.

"While data center orders were $5 billion in [first half 2026], or about 38% of Electrification orders, the remaining 62% was utility-driven," wrote Ocalan. "Utility spend should continue to grow, supported by grid reliability and resilience investments. A slowdown in data center demand may alleviate generation bottlenecks but would do little to address existing grid constraints."

Her observations appear to be helping. GE Vernova stock was up 1.4% in early trading, while the S&P 500 was down 0.2%.

What is also helping is President Donald Trump calling AI fears a hoax several times on Truth Social. He also called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang while Huang was on stage at the All In Summit in Los Angeles. (Huang also pushed back about the existential threat from AI.)

The president's comments are designed to counter calls from industry insiders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, to slow AI development and increase industry oversight.

Amodei has invoked nuclear weapons-style regulation when discussing how to rein in AI. Nuclear weapons, of course, were never controlled by private firms. With AI, it's as if the nuclear bomb has a team of brokers preparing for an IPO.

(Anthropic is expected to raise tens of billions this year. OpenAI is expected to raise money in an IPO in 2027.)

As for Ocalan, she rates GE Vernova shares Buy and has a $1,298 price target. Shares remain popular on Wall Street, with almost 80% of analysts covering the company rating shares Buy, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for S&P 500 stocks typically ranges from 55% to 60%. The average analyst price target for GE Vernova stock is about $1,240.

The average target price is up about 40% from recent levels. The return looks attractive, but for now, fears are keeping some investors on the sidelines.