Tesla stock was down early on Friday as it tries to eke out a gain for the week. An energy report from William Blair might give it a little boost.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker were down 0.5% at $403.70 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.
The move came after a Thursday report from William Blair analyst Jed Dorsheimer, which reviewed data center construction. Things are still progressing at a furious pace.
"February data confirmed that project demand remains robust," he wrote. "The total data center demand pipeline, measured by projects planned and announced, remains at an all-time high of 2,106, up 8% from 1,944 in the previous month." Dorsheimer tracks more than 6,000 data center projects.
"From a capacity perspective, the current pipeline sits at 174 gigawatts...Active U.S. data center load sits at 46 gigawatts," he said, adding that the AI data center power load currently sits at 3.9 gigawatts, with 94 gigawatts planned.
A lot of power generation will be needed to meet that demand. GE Vernova, for context, has the capacity to manufacture some 20 gigawatts of power-generating turbines each year.
Tesla has a power business, too. Selling battery storage to utilities. "Tesla Energy is a hidden jewel that does not get the recognition it deserves," wrote Dorsheimer. "Its Megapack [battery storage] product is industry leading in performance and dominant market share in the U.S." Megapacks provide backup emergency power and help handle high load volatility from AI data centers.
Tesla deployed 46.7 gigawatt-hours of energy storage in 2025. (The 20 gigawatts of GE Vernova turbines running for one hour would be 20 gigawatt-hours of energy.)
Dorshiemer values the Tesla energy business at about $31 a share, or about $120 billion. That's as much as many large utilities and roughly half of GE Vernova.
It isn't enough to push Tesla stock to a Buy. Dorsheimer rates shares Hold. He doesn't have a price target for Tesla stock. A Hold rating at Blair essentially means the broker expects a stock to keep up with the market. He rates GE Vernova stock Buy.
Coming into Friday trading, Tesla stock was up about $3 a share, or 0.8% this week. Shares are trying to snap a two-week losing streak.
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