Shares of power and equipment firms like GE Vernova Inc. and Bloom Energy Corp. fell on Tuesday after SoftBank Group Corp. wrote down $3.7 billion in data center projects.
SoftBank on Tuesday said its writedowns include $2.85 billion of non-refundable advance payments it made to equipment companies for data centers. GE Vernova was listed on an initial list of companies involved in its Ohio project. Though SoftBank has no plans to downsize the project, the company is conducting a “thorough reassessment” including a review of its procurement strategy, said Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto during an earnings call.
GE Vernova shares fell 3.9% on Tuesday, and shares of peers Bloom Energy, Eaton Corp., Vertiv Holdings Co. and Caterpillar Inc. also traded lower.
The losses are a reversal from last year’s trend of gains, which were powered by demand from artificial intelligence data center construction. GE Vernova’s shares nearly doubled in 2025 and Bloom Energy Corp.’s shares nearly quadrupled last year.
“It signals potential order cancellations, which are never a good sign,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mustafa Okur said. “It could mark the start of a wider clear out of bad quality orders from less capitalized customers like neoclouds.”
But Okur notes that GE Vernova still gets around 80% of its orders from traditional customers like utilities.
SoftBank said it would revise existing contracts and take an $880 million writedown related to contract modifications and settlements for equipment. The company will also receive rebates of up to $2.1 billion over the next decade on future equipment purchases.
JPMorgan analyst Julian Mitchell says the SoftBank writedowns could weigh on the broader AI complex within energy equipment.
He said that if a customer delays power equipment orders, it’s “highly likely” that GE Vernova could send the equipment to other customers. The company is now booking orders for 2031 delivery, he noted.
GE Vernova reported that data center orders for 2026 reached $6 billion in late October. Its peer, Eaton, said in November that data center revenue had risen 65% year-over-year.
SoftBank’s writedown comes a week after US midterm elections results, Mitchell added. Widespread Democratic Party wins in Congress and in states like Texas fueled concern about a slowdown in data center development.
Written by: Monique Mulima and Will Daley @Bloomberg
The post “Power Turbine Stocks Dip as SoftBank Loss Fuels Fears” first appeared on Bloomberg