Microsoft Outage Disrupts Services for Over 430 Million Users Across 70 Countries
A global Microsoft outage triggered by a network capacity upgrade disrupted Outlook, Teams, and Copilot across more than 70 countries. The incident affected government agencies, hospitals, and businesses before services were fully restored on Saturday morning.
A widespread outage affecting Microsoft services, including Outlook, Teams, and Copilot, began on Thursday and disrupted operations for more than 430 million people who use the affected products across over 70 countries. Nearly 130,000 users reported problems accessing Outlook on Downdetector just after 1 p.m. ET on Thursday. 
Microsoft stated the outage was introduced during a "network capacity upgrade" and was not caused by a cyber-attack or an artificial intelligence agent. The company reported that services were fully restored early on Saturday morning.
The disruption impacted government agencies, hospitals, financial institutions, and businesses worldwide. In the United States, staff in the House of Representatives reported that the outage set back an entire day of legislative work. In Canada, Via Rail advised passengers to check train trackers or sign up for text notifications because they may not receive email updates about their trips. Unity Health Toronto declared a code grey indicating an infrastructure failure but stated patient care was not affected.
Global insured losses from the incident are estimated between $300 million US and $500 million US. Following the outage reports, Microsoft shares dropped 0.4 per cent in early trading. 
The Web3 Foundation suggested the outage highlights the need for a decentralized internet to avoid single points of failure.