Microsoft ‘deeply’ apologizes for global service outage, says no AI or hackers are to blame

Microsoft issued a comprehensive apology on November 13, 2026, for the global service outage that began on November 12. The disruption affected Microsoft 365 products for various sectors including governments, hospitals, schools, and businesses worldwide. Microsoft clarified that the issue was not due to artificial intelligence or hacking, but rather an underlying infrastructural problem arising from a network upgrade.

The corporation expressed deep regret for the inconvenience, acknowledging the trust placed in their services. Microsoft confirmed that broad recovery and stability are now being observed across their services. They explained that the incident originated from a problem during an earlier network capacity upgrade, which became apparent following a recent network modification.

Microsoft assured that the underlying issue had been addressed and they continued to restore services to affected customers and regions. The company restored services gradually, validating stability at each stage, which, although taking longer, ensured a stable restoration. Microsoft indicated they would release a full post-incident report upon completion of their review.

Speculation about the outage being linked to AI was dismissed as the company explicitly stated it was a technical issue unrelated to cyber threats or AI agents. The cause remains a technical problem stemming from network upgrades, and Microsoft has taken steps to rectify the situation.