ICYMI: Kelly Ayotte Refuses to Answer Whether or Not She Still Owns Data Center Stock

ICYMI: Kelly Ayotte Refuses to Answer Whether or Not She Still Owns Data Center Stock
 

In Case You Missed It, the Granite Post covered Kelly Ayotte’s “financial ties” to the data center industry. Costly Kelly was “paid to sit on the board of a company that powers data centers,” and at the time, “held more than 4,400 shares of Bloom Energy stock, worth roughly $42,000.” Now, Ayotte has “issued a late-stage call to pause data center construction,” a remarkable change in tune. Despite her sudden change of heart, Ayotte has yet to issue an executive order to put an immediate stop to these proposed data center projects. 

It's long been known that Costly Kelly was a “backer” of data center projects in New Hampshire. After all, she cleared “the way for their expansion with state legislation.” As data centers become a flashpoint in the gubernatorial race, Ayotte wants Granite Staters to believe she’ll rein in an industry she cashed in on. 

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Granite Post: Ayotte won’t say whether she still owns data center stock now worth nearly 1M

• Data centers have become the fastest-growing liability for New Hampshire candidates in the 2026 midterm elections, and few candidates have felt the heat quite like Gov. Kelly Ayotte.

• She went from being a major, if quiet, backer of the projects, clearing the way for their expansion in the state with legislation she signed, to promising to include a sweeping moratorium on the facilities in her budget next year–though stopping short of an executive order halting them immediately.

• In 2017, she was paid to sit on the board of a company that powers data centers, and the stock she held there is now worth close to $1 million, according to a new report. She hasn’t said whether she sold it.

• Bloom makes fuel cells, machines that generate electricity on-site, and lists data centers at the top of the industries it serves. Ayotte was paid $112,500 for her board work, The Lever found.

• Ayotte’s final disclosure of her Bloom holdings, filed in 2019, showed she held more than 4,400 shares, worth about $42,000 at the time, according to The Lever.

• Bloom’s stock has since taken off as investors bet on AI’s appetite for electricity. Those 4,400 shares were worth just over $1 million when The Lever published its report and about $970,000 on Tuesday.

• Ayotte hasn’t said whether she still owns the shares, and state law doesn’t make her. 

• In 2025, Ayotte signed House Bill 672, which lets qualified “off-grid” power providers, companies that make electricity without plugging into the regular grid, strike deals and build projects without oversight from the state Public Utilities Commission, though they remain subject to other applicable laws and regulations. 

• Industry watchers said the law made New Hampshire more attractive to data center developers.

• As recently as June, after a Nottingham proposal drew fierce pushback and was withdrawn, Ayotte had not called for a moratorium, and by late July a Manchester billboard was slamming her for it.