Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella (L) returns to the signifier aft a pre-recorded interrogation during the Microsoft Build league opening keynote successful Seattle, Washington connected May 19, 2025.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
Microsoft connected Friday revised its practices to guarantee that engineers successful China nary longer supply method enactment to U.S. defence clients utilizing the company's unreality services.
The institution implemented the changes successful an effort to trim nationalist information and cybersecurity risks stemming from its unreality enactment with a large customer. The announcement came days aft ProPublica published an extensive report describing the Defense Department's dependence connected Microsoft bundle engineers successful China.
"In effect to concerns raised earlier this week astir US-supervised overseas engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our enactment for US Government customers to guarantee that nary China-based engineering teams are providing method assistance for DoD Government unreality and related services," Frank Shaw, the Microsoft's main communications officer, wrote successful a Friday X post.
The alteration impacts the enactment of Microsoft's Azure unreality services division, which analysts estimation present generates much than 25% of the company's revenue. That makes Azure bigger than Google Cloud but smaller than Amazon Web Services. Microsoft receives "substantial gross from authorities contracts," according to its astir caller quarterly earnings statement, and much than fractional of the company's $70 cardinal successful first-quarter gross came from customers based successful the U.S.
In 2019, Microsoft won a $10 billion cloud-related defence contract, but the Pentagon coiled up canceling it successful 2021 aft a ineligible battle. In 2022, the section gave unreality contracts worthy up to $9 cardinal successful full to Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft.
ProPublica reported that the enactment of Microsoft's Chinese Azure engineers is overseen by "digital escorts" successful the U.S., who typically person little method prowess than the employees they negociate overseas. The study elaborate however the "digital escort" statement mightiness permission the U.S. susceptible to a cyberattack from China.
Microsoft primitively told ProPublica that employees and contractors were operating successful adherence to U.S. authorities rules.
"We stay committed to providing the astir unafraid services imaginable to the US government, including moving with our nationalist information partners to measure and set our information protocols arsenic needed," Shaw wrote.
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