ITM Power Rides a Wave of Retail Buying After £86.5m State Injection

ITM Power shares jump 7.45% as interactive investor trades surge, while UK government takes 10.8% stake and grants £46.5m for Sheffield electrolyser expansion.

The electrolyser manufacturer ITM Power has found itself pulled in two directions this week, each tugging the share price higher. A £86.5m package from the UK government – part equity, part grant – has given the company a long-term strategic anchor, while a fresh burst of retail activity on trading platform interactive investor delivered an immediate 7.45% jump in the stock on Thursday.

The state backing comes through two channels. Great British Energy, the government’s clean-energy investment arm, is taking a 10.8% stake for £40m, making ITM Power its single largest portfolio commitment to date. A separate £46.5m grant from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will flow directly into expanding the company’s Sheffield manufacturing facility. The combined injection is designed to accelerate production of the Chronos platform – ITM’s next-generation electrolyser – with a target nameplate capacity of one gigawatt by 2028. The expansion is expected to create more than 400 jobs in South Yorkshire.

That institutional vote of confidence was not the only driver of recent price action. On the interactive investor platform, ITM Power topped the list of the ten most-traded names on Thursday, ahead of heavyweights such as Rolls-Royce, BP and easyJet. Of the trades executed, 53% were purchases, signalling a clear tilt toward demand despite elevated sell interest. The rally carried the stock to a close of 209.20p after touching an intraday high of 219.79p, with 10.76m shares changing hands. The previous session had already delivered a 7.22% gain to 195p on volume of 8.58m shares, pushing the market capitalisation to £1.35bn.

The retail-led upswing coincides with an improving operational backdrop. In February, ITM Power lifted its revenue guidance for the 2026 fiscal year to a range of £40m to £43m, up from the prior £35m to £40m target, citing strong project execution and new orders. The order book stood at £152m in January – more than triple the level of two years ago – and 71% of those contracts were profitable, a marked improvement over the 60% recorded in April 2025.

Chief executive Dennis Schulz described the government’s entry as a signal that ITM Power is being positioned as a natural partner for the UK’s emerging hydrogen economy. The state investment effectively bypasses traditional incentive-based policy, opting instead for direct industrial capacity building. For the share price, the near-term momentum rests on retail enthusiasm, but the company’s ability to convert its raised guidance and robust order pipeline into sustained revenue growth will determine whether the rally has legs beyond the current wave of buying.