Tying up with Thai business tycoons, Guofu Hydrogen Energy (2582.HK) taps into new growth areas of AI computing power and green electricity

In the midst of volatility in the Hong Kong stock market, a company’s strategic decisions often become the key to breaking through valuation constraints.

On April 27, Guofu Hydrogen Energy (2582.HK) $GUOFUHEE (02582.HK)$ announced the subscription of approximately 8.5% of the equity in U Power Limited, a US-listed company. This seemingly ordinary equity investment is actually the 'golden key' to unlocking the Southeast Asian market.

U Power Limited specializes in utilizing its proprietary UOTTATM electric vehicle (EV) battery swapping technology, with its core shareholders being the prominent family members of Thailand’s business giant – the Charoen Pokphand Group. This represents an explicit deep-rooted partnership.

Following the capital maneuver, the industry implementation quickly followed: Guofu Hydrogen Energy simultaneously announced it had entered into a deep joint venture cooperation with a holding company under the family fund of key members of the Charoen family, officially establishing a joint venture. Both parties will collaborate to embark on a new journey to deploy power supply products for AI data centers and hydrogen energy equipment facilities in Southeast Asia.

More notably, Mr. Chia Tien, the senior chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group, will personally serve as the legal representative and chairman of this joint venture. The fact that a top-tier leader is taking charge signifies that this project has been placed at the highest strategic priority within the group.

This is not just a simple business collaboration but a profound integration addressing the pain points of 'power shortages' and 'green computing.' It also marks Guofu Hydrogen Energy’s official entry from being a traditional 'production-storage-transportation-application' equipment provider into the high-growth 'digital energy' sector.

At this moment, the market may need to reassess the essence of this company — it is no longer merely a hydrogen energy equipment manufacturer but an energy technology enterprise driven by a 'capital + industry' dual engine, boasting an imaginative crossover combination of 'hydrogen energy + computing power.'

I. From 'Full Industry Chain' to 'Global Layout': The Evolution Theory of a Hydrogen Energy Leader

To understand the value of this announcement, one must first recognize Guofu Hydrogen Energy's 'foundation.' As a leading player in China’s hydrogen energy equipment industry, Guofu Hydrogen Energy has long established integrated advantages across the entire 'production, storage, transportation, application, and usage' industrial chain.

In downstream applications, from onboard high-pressure hydrogen supply systems to hydrogen refueling station equipment, the company has consistently ranked at the top of the domestic market. Upstream, through the deployment of both ALK (alkaline) and PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolyzer technologies, Guofu Hydrogen Energy has completed the final piece of its green hydrogen puzzle. This evolution transforms the company from a single equipment supplier into a comprehensive service provider offering 'green electricity—green hydrogen' integrated solutions.

Leveraging the advantages of the entire industrial chain, the company is not only advancing green hydrogen projects in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and other regions rich in wind and solar resources domestically, but also establishing joint ventures and building factories in the Middle East, Europe, Brazil, and other overseas locations. Its planned hydrogen production capacity exceeds the gigawatt level, with its global footprint continuously expanding.

In 2025, the company delivered multi-scenario water electrolysis hydrogen production equipment to Malaysia, India, Morocco, Germany, and other regions. At the same time, the company partnered with German Wankel Aviation to develop 'hydrogen rotary engines,' entering the low-altitude economy sector. In 2026, it successively signed orders with customers in India, Morocco, North America, Australia, Korea, and other regions, marking a significant leap in its strategic map.

This evolution into a 'global energy solutions provider' has laid a solid foundation for this collaboration with Charoen Pokphand Group. Without deep accumulation in the hydrogen energy field, Guofu Hydrogen would have found it difficult to enter the high-barrier power supply market for data centers.

II. Breaking Through the 'Compute Power Famine': Strategic Positioning in the Southeast Asian Market

Returning to the core of this cooperation, the joint venture's main business directly targets low-carbon power supply solutions for AI data centers. The underlying commercial logic stems from a 'battle of compute power and energy' that Southeast Asia, and even the world, is currently experiencing.

With the explosive growth of AI technology, Thailand, as the core engine of Southeast Asia's digital economy, has seen a surge in demand for data centers. However, rapid hardware deployment faces a soft spot—power shortages and high energy consumption. According to IDCNOVA monitoring, by April 2026, the number of publicly trackable data center facilities in Thailand had reached about 60.

The traditional power grid cannot meet the massive electricity demands of AI data centers, and carbon emission requirements are becoming increasingly stringent. Distributed hydrogen power generation is the optimal solution to address this pain point—this is precisely Guofu Hydrogen's 'killer application': it can serve as an independent power source to ensure stable power supply while achieving zero carbon emissions, perfectly aligning with the trend toward green computing power.

The value of this cooperation can be glimpsed from the following points:

- Strong client background: Charoen Pokphand Group is the largest data center owner in Thailand. Its subsidiary True IDC is the flagship of local computing power in Thailand, with current total power capacity exceeding 150MW. Following the launch of Thailand’s first AI hyperscale data center in 2025, True IDC announced in April 2026 a new-generation AI hyperscale campus in the EEC region, targeting up to 250MW, further unlocking regional market growth potential.

- Clear order lock-in: Mr. Xie Zhan personally leading the charge means that the joint venture will prioritize securing orders for power supply systems in all new, renovated, or expanded data centers owned by Charoen Pokphand Group in Thailand.

- Huge market potential: According to Bank of America Global Research, by 2025, the construction cost of global data centers per MW has reached $39 million, of which the total investment cost related to power is approximately $2.6 million per MW. Based on this ratio, a 10MW data center corresponds to an order value of approximately RMB 170 million for the power supply system.

The first phase of Charoen Pokphand Group's Thailand data center has a planned power demand as high as 240MW, which corresponds to a total market potential of about RMB 4.08 billion just for the initial phase. If Guofu Hydrogen Energy achieves a penetration rate of 10%-20%, it will bring in several hundred million to billions of yuan in performance growth, which, for Guofu Hydrogen Energy at its current market capitalization, undoubtedly represents a significant valuation reshaping opportunity.

More importantly, this is not just a simple equipment sales project but rather a regional market operation through a joint venture. The company will gain long-term operational revenue and brand premium from this.

III. Valuation Reassessment: Benchmarking Bloom Energy’s 'Second Growth Curve'

In the investment world, the market often gives a premium to 'stories' and values 'performance.' Guofu Hydrogen Energy's entry into the data center power supply sector can actually be compared to a star company in the US stock market—Bloom Energy.

Bloom Energy was once focused on industrial and commercial fuel cell power supply. Since 2024, North American data centers have faced severe power shortages, and with its highly efficient and stable distributed power supply technology, Bloom Energy quickly entered the data center sector, securing orders from several tech giants. This transformation directly fueled its stock price, increasing its market capitalization more than 20-fold within two years.

This proves a hard truth: When an energy company with core technology successfully enters a high-growth, high-pain-point track (such as data centers), the capital market will assign it a very high growth valuation.

Guofu Hydrogen Energy's current situation bears striking similarities to that of Bloom Energy.

First, their technologies are of common origin; both possess mature fuel cell or hydrogen power generation technologies capable of providing stable and reliable distributed electricity. Second, there is synergy in their sectors; both face the challenge of power shortages brought on by the explosion of AI computing power and have chosen data centers as their breakthrough point. Third, they are tied to key clients; Bloom Energy partners with Silicon Valley giants, while Guofu Hydrogen Energy partners with Southeast Asia’s business behemoth, Charoen Pokphand Group.

The difference is that Guofu Hydrogen Energy has a stronger business foundation. In addition to data centers, the company has a vast array of onboard hydrogen storage bottles, hydrogen refueling station equipment, and rapidly growing liquid hydrogen businesses.

This means that once the data center business is market-validated and assigned a high valuation, Guofu Hydrogen Energy will reap the dual valuation benefits of 'traditional business + high-growth tech stock'.

Moreover, this collaboration is not just about selling equipment but also about the output of 'products + ecosystem.' The joint venture will focus on three core business segments, including not only low-carbon power supply solutions for AI data centers but also the construction of hydrogen energy transportation and refueling networks, as well as the development of smart drone industry ecosystems, all of which precisely meet the demands of the Southeast Asian market.

In terms of hydrogen energy transportation, the focus will be on promoting hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks and hydrogen exchange systems, with hydrogen refueling stations set up in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and central Bangkok to build an integrated and efficient hydrogen transportation ecosystem. In the field of smart drones, relying on Charoen Pokphand Group's agricultural and logistics resources, agricultural plant protection drones and logistics drones will be deployed to empower local industrial upgrading.

This indicates that Guofu Hydrogen Energy's related products will gain natural application scenarios. This kind of 'point-to-area' ecosystem-building capability is something companies that merely sell equipment do not possess.

Overall, the joint venture between Guofu Hydrogen Energy and Charoen Pokphand Group not only brings certain performance growth to the company but also marks its successful breakthrough in business boundaries, extending from hydrogen energy equipment manufacturing to the high-growth track of green power supply for data centers, achieving optimization and upgrading of its business structure.

IV. Conclusion

From its factory in Zhangjiagang to becoming the digital heart of Thailand, Guofu Hydrogen Energy has proven through action that the application boundaries of hydrogen energy are far broader than imagined—it is not only fuel for heavy trucks and raw material for industries but also a future green power source for data centers. This joint venture may become a key milestone in Guofu Hydrogen Energy’s development.

In terms of its own capabilities, the technical barriers formed by the full industrial chain layout, engineering delivery capabilities, and mature experience in the field of green power supply provide solid support for the implementation of the joint venture business.

In terms of external environment, the trend of global energy transition combined with the digital economy, along with the support of the national 'Belt and Road' initiative, creates favorable conditions for overseas business expansion.

In terms of industry benchmarking, Bloom Energy’s market performance not only fully demonstrates the high growth potential of the green power supply track for data centers but also provides a reference for re-evaluating Guofu Hydrogen Energy’s valuation.

As the certainty of the Thai and broader Southeast Asian markets gradually opens up, Guofu Hydrogen Energy’s 'second growth curve' has become clear, and its path to value recovery may have just begun.

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