Microsoft restores services after global outage affecting 70 countries

Microsoft said Saturday that its services were fully restored after a global outage lasting hours, affecting Microsoft 365 apps including Outlook, Teams, and Copilot across over 70 countries. The outage, which began midday Thursday in the U.S., disrupted governments, courts, healthcare, airlines, and banks in places like Japan, Singapore, and Australia. Microsoft apologized Friday, stating the issue stemmed from a network capacity upgrade, not a cyberattack or AI agents. Over 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, and the incident highlighted reliance on one provider, prompting some lawmakers to question dependence on American tech. The company gradually restored services, with no indication of malicious activity.