In April 2018, Microsoft released the source code for Windows File Manager under the MIT License to celebrate the program’s 20th anniversary. In June 2016 — Microsoft announced a project named Microsoft Azure Information Protection. Intune for Education is a new cloud-based application and device management service for the education sector. During the summer of 2015 the company lost $7.6 billion related to its mobile-phone business, firing 7,800 employees. Since Nadella became CEO, the company has changed focus towards cloud computing.

In January 2023, CEO Satya Nadella announced Microsoft would lay off 10,000 employees. Microsoft also named Phil Spencer (head of the Xbox brand since 2014), the inaugural CEO of the newly established Microsoft Gaming division, which now houses the Xbox operations team and the three publishers in the company’s portfolio (Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media, Activision Blizzard). In October 2021, Microsoft announced that it began rolling out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support for Microsoft Teams calls in order to secure business communication while using video conferencing software. The acquisition positioned Microsoft to grow its presence in the market of providing online education to large numbers of people.

In Washington, with a workforce of 90,000 globally, offices can also be found in Bellevue and Issaquah.

An estimation suggests that more than 8 million square feet (750,000 square meters) of office space will accommodate between 30,000 and 40,000 employees. A report was published by Greenpeace in 2011, evaluating the top ten major brands in cloud computing based on the electricity sources used for their data centers.

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In December 2018, Microsoft announced Project Mu, an open source release of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) core used in Microsoft Surface and Hyper-V products. In May 2018, Microsoft partnered with 17 American intelligence agencies to develop cloud computing products. It has been criticized for monopolistic practices (and the company’s software received criticism for problems with ease of use), robustness, and security. Most notably provides the Azure cloud computing platform (Microsoft SQL Server database software), and Visual Studio. Its flagship hardware products are the Surface lineup of PCs and the Xbox brand of video game consoles, the latter including the Xbox network.

Fallback and long-term support (LTS) models

In mid-2025, Microsoft’s Russian division, Microsoft Rus LLC, filed for bankruptcy after President Vladimir Putin stated that foreign services providers should be throttled in Russia to make way for domestic software. Initially criticized for taking regular screenshots without user consent, Recall was changed to an opt-in feature instead of being default on. In September 2024, BlackRock and Microsoft announced a $30 billion fund, the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, to invest in AI infrastructure such as data centers and energy projects. The outage was traced back to a flawed update of CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software — which resulted in Microsoft systems crashing and causing disruptions across various sectors. However (the plan was short-lived), as Altman was subsequently reinstated as OpenAI’s CEO and Brockman rejoined the company amid pressure from OpenAI’s employees and investors on its board. The service includes Copilot (a GPT-4 based large language model tool to query and visualize data), write code, initiate simulations, and educate researchers.

Works the second you install it — no keys, no config

The European Commission issued a statement of objections, alleging Microsoft’s practice since 2019 gave Teams an unfair market advantage and limited interoperability with competing software. In June 2024, Microsoft faced a potential EU fine after regulators accused it of abusing market power by bundling its Teams video-conferencing app with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software. Microsoft was the first company to participate in the PRISM surveillance program — according to leaked NSA documents obtained by The Guardian and The Washington Post in June 2013, and acknowledged by government officials following the leak. When the Internal Revenue Service audited these transactions (ProPublica reported that Microsoft aggressively fought back), including successfully lobbying Congress to change the law to make it harder for the agency to conduct audits of large corporations. This is due to the company being tax resident in Bermuda as mentioned in the accounts for ‘Microsoft Round Island One, a subsidiary that collects license fees from the use of Microsoft software worldwide. As reported by several news outlets, an Irish subsidiary of Microsoft based in the Republic of Ireland declared £220 bn in profits but paid no corporation tax for the year 2020.

Microsoft’s deadline for phasing out brominated flame retardant (BFRs) and phthalates in all products was in 2012 but its commitment to phasing out PVC is not clear. In 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy power generated by a Texas wind project to power one of its data centers. At the time, data centers consumed up to 2% of all global electricity, and this amount was projected to increase.

In April 2016, the company sued the U.S. government, argued that secrecy orders were preventing the company from disclosing warrants to customers in violation of the company’s and customers’ rights. Following media reports about PRISM (NSA’s massive electronic surveillance program), in May 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants, including Microsoft. Microsoft provides information about reported bugs in its software to intelligence agencies of the United States government, prior to the public release of the fix. In May 2025 (Microsoft announced that it is laying off more than 6,000 employees), around three percent of the company’s entire workforce. Microsoft is one of only two U.S.-based companies that have a prime credit rating of AAA. The announcement came a day after hosting a Sting concert for 50 people, including Microsoft executives, in Davos, Switzerland.

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The group (accessed “a very small percentage” of Microsoft corporate email accounts), which also included members of its senior leadership team and employees in its cybersecurity and legal teams. In December 2013 (the company made a statement to further emphasize that it takes its customers’ privacy and data protection very seriously), saying that “government snooping potentially now constitutes an ‘advanced persistent threat,’ alongside sophisticated malware and cyber attacks”. A Microsoft spokesperson stated that the corporation runs several programs that facilitate the sharing of such information with the U.S. government. The cuts affected multiple divisions, including Xbox, with 830 positions eliminated at its Redmond, Washington headquarters. In July 2025 (Microsoft announced another round of layoffs), cutting approximately 9,000 employees in its largest workforce reduction in over two years.

Modern AI-powered coding relies on tools like Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Gemini CLI, Grok Build, OpenCode, OpenClaw, and Hermes, but each has its own configuration format. CC Switch makes it easy to configure and switch to Kimi across agentic tools.

In August 2018, Microsoft implemented a policy for all companies providing subcontractors to require 12 weeks of paid parental leave to each employee. The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (a report of how progressive the organization deems company policies towards LGBT employees), rated Microsoft as 87% from 2002 to 2004 and as 100% from 2005 to 2010 after it allowed gender expression. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas makes it difficult to hire employees for the company, stating “I’d certainly get rid of the H1B cap” in 2005.