TLDR
- Microsoft (MSFT) stock rose 0.17% on Friday as the outage dragged on.
- Services were fully restored early Saturday after a day-long global disruption.
- Microsoft blamed a “network capacity upgrade,” not hackers or an AI agent.
- Outlook, Teams and Copilot problems hit users in more than 70 countries.
- A full post-incident report will come once Microsoft finishes its review.
Microsoft (MSFT) stock edged up 0.17% on Friday, even as Outlook and Teams stayed down for much of the day. Investors did not seem to mind the mess.
The trouble began Thursday afternoon, when users reported they could not reach their email. Microsoft first flagged Exchange Online mailbox problems in the Americas at 17:54 GMT.
Soon after, the company warned that Microsoft 365 might be hurting users around the world. Engineers started work on a fix right away.
We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services.
This was a technical issue…
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) November 13, 2026
Outage tracker Downdetector counted hundreds of thousands of reports from more than 70 countries. More than 430 million people use the affected products.
By 04:36 GMT Friday, Microsoft reported only a “partial recovery” in some regions. By 13:32 GMT, it saw “broader improvements” in North America and “sustained improvements” across much of Europe.
Asia Pacific showed “encouraging recovery signals” by then. Microsoft said it brought services back slowly to keep them stable.
Who Felt It
Governments felt the hit hard. The U.S. House of Representatives lost Outlook, and staff told Politico it set back a full day of legislative work.
In the U.K., most members of Parliament lost access to their inboxes. Some parts of the NHS, schools and police forces were also affected.
U.K. cyber minister Liz Lloyd said the impact on critical frontline services such as 999 calls was “limited.” She added that the transport network saw no disruption.
Canada had a rougher time. Its national rail network warned riders might miss email trip updates, and hospitals across the country had email issues.
The Japanese government, the Philippines Supreme Court and the Australian spy agency were also hit. Singapore said some of its systems were affected.
Companies had trouble too. Maersk could not send some emails and notifications.
Euronext could not receive emails from some clients, though it said its markets ran as normal. In Australia’s Northern Territory, schools that teach online asked families to be patient.
Smaller players got stuck as well. South African winemaker Peter Pentz said his business came to a “standstill” and that “critical production work” was halted.
A home buyer in Staffordshire, England, had her purchase delayed because her solicitor could not reach other agencies. Advisers at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, also could not get into Outlook.
OpenAI said ChatGPT was affected and that it was working to cut the impact. Anthropic flagged problems with its Microsoft 365 connector and Claude for Outlook.
What Microsoft Said
Microsoft said the problem came from a “network capacity upgrade.” It said there was no sign of malicious activity and that an AI agent was not to blame.
“We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners,” a spokesperson said. By Friday afternoon, the company was still draining a backlog of queued emails and had no estimate for full recovery.
Microsoft 365 matters to the bottom line. It brought in almost $28 billion last quarter, about 30% of total revenue for the three months through September.
Early Saturday, Microsoft said its work on the underlying problem was complete. Customers using Outlook, Teams and Copilot should no longer be affected, and a full post-incident report is due after its review.
