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%Babcock&Wilcox Enterprises (NYSE: $BW ) is a historic energy company that is getting a second act as a %DataCentre play.

Founded in 1867, the Ohio-based company is best-known as a maker of steam boilers.

Babcock & Wilcox manufactured the boilers that powered New York City's first subway in 1902 and the first coal power plant in the U.S. in 1918.

The company also made the components needed to operate the world's first nuclear-powered submarine in 1955.

In more recent years, Babcock & Wilcox has struggled and undergone several reorganizations in an effort to reinvent itself and its energy business.

Most recently, the company has focused on operating coal plants in both its home market of the U.S. and in Europe.

However, a new partnership is helping Babcock & Wilcox pivot once again, this time to powering data centres that run artificial intelligence (A.I.) applications and cloud computing networks.

Babcock & Wilcox has formed a strategic partnership with private equity firm Denham Capital to generate power that meets the growing demand from data centres.

The company is looking to use coal power generation and natural gas conversion to help meet the massive power needs of data centres, particularly those running A.I. workloads.

The focus on data centres has BW stock moving in the right direction once again. Over the last 12 months, the company's share price has risen 123%, including a 52% gain in 2025.

Babcock & Wilcox remains a micro-cap stock with a market capitalization of only $265 million U.S.

Trading at $2.63 U.S. a share, it is also a penny stock, defined as any security that trades for less than $5 U.S.

It's also worth noting that Babcock & Wilcox's stock has only come to life over the last year. Owing to its past difficulties, the share price is only up 4% over the past five years.

That said, if the data centre buildout continues as expected, Babcock & Wilcox could once again be at the forefront of a leading industry and its stock could continue rising.