Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) stock took off like a rocket last month, climbing 45% in the last two weeks of May. Ford’s given back about half those gains in the June stock sell-off, but why did Ford stock put pedal to metal in the first place?
Because all of a sudden, Ford has decided it’s an energy stock.
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Ford Motor is electric
A little over three years ago, Ford secured a license from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, which permits Ford to manufacture batteries using CATL technology. The original plan, of course, was to make these batteries for Ford electric vehicles (EVs). But now that EV demand in the U.S. has collapsed, and demand for electrical power to run artificial intelligence (AI) data centers has exploded, Ford has struck upon a new idea for how to use its technology license:
Ford will manufacture batteries to store electricity for use by data centers and AI semiconductor factories.
Ford announced the plan in January 2026, promising to build batteries at factories in Kentucky and Michigan, and use them to create a “battery energy storage business.” Production would begin in mid-2027, rapidly ramping to produce 20 gigawatt-hours of batteries annually and generating as much as $5 billion in new energy storage revenue by 2030.
Wall Street already loves the idea. In mid-May, Morgan Stanley predicted energy could generate between $500 million and $600 million in annual operating profit for Ford.
General Motors charges in
It was this prediction, by the way, that sparked Ford stock’s amazing run last month — and it seems the lesson wasn’t lost on Ford archrival General Motors (NYSE: GM). Last week, GM announced it has a few energy ideas of its own.
GM’s first idea isn’t exactly original: “vehicle-to-grid” electricity in which owners of GM EVs can plug them into the grid to support the grid during peak demand — essentially a system of distributed energy storage. GM said last week it is seeking to partner with utility companies on such a project and is already in talks with utility companies in California and Michigan.
Separately, GM is partnering with privately held Redwood Materials to reuse or recycle old EV batteries for utility-scale energy storage.