Microsoft apologizes for global outage

Microsoft said it was ‘deeply sorry’ Friday for the global outage that occurred affecting public services and businesses around the world while stating that recovery is under way.

Microsoft further stated that it is ruling out any foul play involving “cyber or AI” activities which might have been the culprits behind the outage affecting health care services, corporate earnings reports, and left schools struggling to communicate.

A trade union in Britain said the outage had a “serious impact” on the country’s health care service with staff “unable to refer patient details in the normal way,” leading to significant backlogs.

“We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners,” Microsoft said on X.

“We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services. This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents.”

The disruption, which took place in 74 countries and territories, affected users across the Americas and parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, according to the outage tracker Downdetector.