Key Takeaways

• Ford’s stock rose close to 47% in May, driven by the announcement of its new energy storage business and growing data center demand.
• The automaker’s core business remains strained as investors make early bets on a potential new growth engine.
• Ford’s energy division is years away from generating profit, according to Morningstar’s David Whiston.

Ford F stock surged nearly 47% in May, making for its best month since April 2009, as investors hitched onto an unexpected growth story for the automaker: energy storage. The firm’s newly launched Ford Energy sparked the rally, as investors began treating Ford as a potential beneficiary of the growing energy needs of data centers used for artificial intelligence.

The question is…