Hunterbrook Alleges China Links in Bloom Energy's Scandium Supply

Overview

• On July 9 Hunterbrook, a short-selling firm, published a report saying multiple stages of Bloom’s scandium supply chain trace back to China and disclosed it holds a short position in the stock.
• The report argued Bloom’s goal of scaling to 5 gigawatts a year could need about 220 tons of scandium oxide, an amount close to projected global annual supply and therefore a potential bottleneck for production growth.
• Bloom Energy forcefully rejected the allegations as false and misleading, saying it has a diversified global procurement network and visibility into enough scandium to meet current demand and its reported backlog.
• Market reaction was volatile with shares falling about 5% after the report and then rebounding in premarket trading after Bloom’s rebuttal; analysts and investors say execution of manufacturing scale-up and project hookups will determine revenue conversion.
• Beyond the supply dispute, Bloom’s AI growth case remains supported by large commercial deals and expanded Brookfield financing, but July 28 earnings are expected to be the key test for concrete production guidance and supply-chain disclosures.