Ford Shares Jump on Optimism Over AI-Linked Energy Storage Business

Shares of Ford Motor Company surged for a second straight day late last week as investors embraced the company’s expanding energy-storage business and its potential role in AI-related infrastructure growth.

A major factor behind that optimism is Ford’s partnership with Chinese battery giant CATL. (Photo: Warren LeMay Flickr)

The rally followed a recent 13% gain, bringing Ford’s two-day increase to nearly 20%, after analysts at Morgan Stanley highlighted the company’s battery-storage operations as a potential long-term growth driver, Pras Subramanian reported for Yahoo Finance.

Investors are increasingly viewing Ford as a “hyperscaler-adjacent” data-center play because of its battery energy storage system (ESS) business.

Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco wrote in a note Tuesday that Ford’s $2 billion investment in battery storage could eventually be worth as much as $10 billion on its own.

A major factor behind that optimism is Ford’s partnership with Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited, commonly known as CATL.

“We believe Ford’s relationship with CATL is an underappreciated strategic competitive advantage for its Energy Storage business,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote, describing Ford as one of the few “semi-vertically integrated domestic ESS suppliers” with access to advanced lithium iron phosphate technology.

Morgan Stanley estimated Ford Energy’s enterprise value at roughly $10 billion using a 17.5-times multiple on projected earnings before interest and taxes once annual production reaches 20 gigawatt-hours.

Analysts said the bullish scenario could eventually value the business at as much as $31 billion.