The motivation to use air foil bearings in fuel cell compressors is driven by the demand for oil-free and high-power density system to reduce system volume and weight. The characteristics of air foil bearings that realize this demand are its independency on auxiliary system and no scheduled maintenance as well as their superb performance at high speeds. However, integration of the foil bearings to the compressor needs rigorous developmental tests for the bearing to withstand high g-load during vehicle maneuver and to remain stable in rotordynamics under external destabilizing forces. This paper presents multi-pads foil bearing technology applicable to single stage high speed fuel cell air compressors.Two different multi-pad air foil bearing designs (two-pad vs three-pad) were tested using a high-speed spin test rig to identify the differences in rotordynamics responses. The two-pad bearing is superior in rotordynamics without any sub-synchronous vibration while three-pad bearing provides more uniform load capacity in all directions with less rotordynamics stability. Frequency-domain modal analyses verify the experimental observations. Axial foil bearings with 38mm outer diameter was designed and tested up to 140krpm with load capacity of 90N (1.4bar specific load capacity).Finally, a platform design of single stage 15kW fuel cell compressor with rated speed of 130krpm is proposed using the multi-pad foil bearings and axial foil bearings developed through this paper.