Ma could be the best month for Ford stock in 17 years thanks to the AI boom

Ford Motor shares end May with the strongest monthly growth in 17 years: investors have begun to consider the automaker as one of the potential beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, Bloomberg writes. The stock rose 5.3% on Friday and 47% since the beginning of the month.

Ford shares are close to ending the month with the best result since April 2009, Bloomberg writes. On Friday at the time of publication, the carmaker's papers are growing by more than 5%. Thus, for the month, Ford's securities can add 47%, which would be the best for them since April 2009, writes Bloomberg. Then Ford's securities soared by 127%, as the company managed to survive the financial crisis better than its competitors - General Motors and Chrysler, which were on the verge of bankruptcy, the agency reminds. On Friday, Ford's securities are growing for the eighth consecutive trading session, the longest series of growth in three years, Bloomberg calculated. At the close of trading on Thursday, the automaker's shares reached their highest level since April 2022 - at $16.65.

Some players, who bet on the fall of shares, have already started to close positions, notes Bloomberg. According to S3 Partners, over the last 30 days investors liquidated short positions on Ford on 22.3 million shares with a total value of about $369 million. Losses of shorts for this period amounted to $395 million, or 24%. At the same time, according to Vanda Research, institutional investors remain the main driving force behind the growth of Ford shares. Participation of private traders is relatively restrained, and in recent trading days even had a negative impact on the dynamics of securities, notes Vanda Research.

Investors are increasingly focused on the automaker's new energy storage business and its potential benefit from skyrocketing demand for electricity for data centers and AI services, Bloomberg explains the hype around Ford.

The rally began after Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco, in a May 12 note, valued Ford's energy business at $10 billion and suggested the company could soon have contracts with major data center operators. He believes Ford's Energy division will be able to supply battery energy storage systems to utility companies, data centers and large industrial customers.

Eric Deaton, president and managing director of The Wealth Alliance, said Ford's entry into the energy storage market looks like a logical extension of the company's electric vehicle business. "It's not such a distant step for Ford, given its experience in creating electric vehicles," he told Bloomberg. The agency recalls that Tesla has long been developing its energy storage business. According to Bloomberg, this segment accounted for about 13.5% of its revenue in 2025.

"Ford probably won't start making money on energy storage systems until 2028 at the earliest, so right now it's more about hopes and expectations than facts," Bloomberg quotes Integrity Asset Management portfolio manager Joe Gilbert as saying. He notes that "momentum is very strong right now and the company's valuation still looks cheap relative to the market," but warns that business fundamentals will ultimately remain the determining factor. "The company's core business looks good, but not much more than that. And sooner or later it is the fundamentals that will matter," Gilbert emphasized.

Karobaar Capital Chief Investment Officer Haris Khurshid believes that more automakers will develop related areas such as energy storage, autonomous driving, infrastructure and robotics. "Partly it's a real strategy, but partly it's like the market is telling them, 'Don't just be car companies,'" he said in a conversation with Bloomberg.

Khurshid said the market is now rewarding "indirect involvement [companies] in AI" almost as generously as direct work in the field. "Investors are willing to pay a huge premium for almost anything related to the long-term growth of AI or energy infrastructure," he said. Bloomberg notes that Karobaar Capital has long held Ford stock.

Ford's rapid transformation from a traditional industrial automaker to one of the favorites of the AI trend reflects a broader market process. Investors are actively looking for companies that can make money from the large-scale construction of data centers and energy infrastructure for the development of artificial intelligence, Bloomberg writes.

Caterpillar is primarily known for its yellow bulldozers, but the company's shares have risen more than 150% over the past 12 months thanks to investor interest in its energy equipment business. Vertiv Holdings, which provides infrastructure solutions for data centers, is up 190% over the same period: it makes cooling for AI chips. Even Japanese condiment maker Ajinomoto has added about 55% since the beginning of the year, as its insulation materials are used in semiconductor packaging.

For investors looking for the next winner in the AI race, industrial companies often look like a much cheaper alternative to tech giants, Bloomberg notes. As of Thursday's close, Ford was among the cheapest companies in the S&P 500 index, trading at a forward P/E ratio, which shows the stock's price-to-earnings ratio for the next year, of about 9.7. While that multiple is up 33% since the end of April - following the stock's rise - it's still well below the S&P 500 average of about 21 and the Nasdaq 100 at nearly 25, the agency emphasizes.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor