Microsoft restores services after global outage affecting 70+ countries

Microsoft said Saturday that services were fully restored after a massive outage lasting hours, affecting Microsoft 365 apps including Outlook, Teams, and AI assistant Copilot. The company confirmed completion of efforts to address the underlying issue and restore service to remaining impacted customers and regions. Users in over 70 countries and territories reported disruptions, impacting governments, courts, healthcare, businesses, airlines, and banks. Governments in Japan, Singapore, and Australia noted operational effects. Problems began around midday Thursday in the U.S., with Microsoft apologizing Friday, stating the outage was not cyber-related or linked to AI agents. Microsoft attributed the incident to an issue introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced after a recent network change. Over 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, according to the company's website.