Global Microsoft 365 outage disrupts services across 74 countries
A massive global system outage struck Microsoft's cloud productivity suite on 13 November, crippling email, messaging and AI services across at least 74 countries and territories. Hong Kong airlines said flight schedules remained normal but warned of possible communication delays.
A massive global system outage struck Microsoft's cloud productivity suite on the morning of 13 November, crippling email, messaging, and artificial intelligence services across at least 74 countries and territories, according to The Standard.
Hong Kong's major passenger airlines confirmed that their flight schedules remained normal on 13 November following the widespread global disruption across Microsoft 365 cloud services, though carriers warned travellers of possible communication delays and back-office disruptions.
The outage affected users worldwide, with services including email, messaging platforms and AI tools rendered inaccessible. The scale of the disruption, covering at least 74 nations, highlighted the reliance on Microsoft's cloud infrastructure for business and government operations globally.
In a separate development, Nvidia has said US export controls have effectively shut it out of China's AI data-centre market, but a Reuters review has identified more than US$3 billion in Chinese computing projects built around the American chipmaker's restricted processors.
Members of US President Donald Trump's AI task force met on Thursday and discussed ways to encourage critical US sectors to report AI-powered cyberattacks, according to a Trump administration spokesperson.
At the Sing Tao Global Economic Summit 2026 on Friday, Jia Jiaya, Chair Professor of Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, maintained that the development of artificial intelligence will not cause large-scale unemployment despite profoundly shifting work patterns, but rather create numerous new jobs.