Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) shares surged Thursday morning after Microsoft’s fourth-quarter earnings report reignited investor interest in clean energy and AI power demand. Microsoft delivered revenue of $90.01 billion, up 18% year-over-year, and earnings of $4.74 per share, with its Intelligent Cloud division producing $39.3 billion in revenue, boosted by a 43% jump in Azure cloud services. Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligation surged 84% to $678 billion. Analysts cited Azure’s performance as a key indicator of enterprise AI adoption. The expansion in cloud computing and enterprise AI requires substantial power, creating bottlenecks for conventional utility grids. Plug Power, which provides end-to-end green hydrogen ecosystems including proton exchange membrane electrolyzers and stationary fuel cell power platforms, is positioned to supply high-density, zero-emission off-grid energy to hyperscale facilities. Investors are betting tech giants may deploy hydrogen fuel cell systems to overcome utility grid delays and secure continuous baseload and backup power. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said on the quarterly conference call that AI demand is outpacing available computing capacity, noting, “Demand exceeds available supply in a sort of relatively extreme moment.” Plug Power shares were up 7.37% at $2.04 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.