As we mark Safer Internet Day 2026, we’re reflecting on a simple but enduring principle: safety must be designed into online services, not bolted on. Microsoft’s work in this space spans more than two decades—from technology solutions like PhotoDNA to our investments in responsible gaming, public-private partnerships, and empowering users through education. This foundation guides our approach as we help individuals and families navigate a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by new technologies and new risks and as we innovate with next-generation AI offerings. At a moment when 91% of people tell us they worry about harms introduced by AI, our commitment to responsible innovation has never been more important—especially for our youngest users.

Read on for more about our longstanding efforts to create a safer digital environment, plus key findings from our Global Online Safety Survey and new examples of our work to empower families and communities through tools, research, and educational resources—including the latest release in Minecraft Education’s CyberSafe series.  

Ten years of safety research 

2026 marks the tenth year of our annual Global Online Safety Survey research. For a decade, we have invested in surveying teens and adults around the world about their experiences and perceptions of life online—aiming to provide fresh insights to support our collective work. That’s 130,000+ interviews across 37 countries, with the results available on our website. Ten years later, respondents tell us that they feel more connected and more productive, but less safe online.  

This year’s Global Online Safety Survey also highlights the complexity of the digital environment young people now inhabit. Teens’ exposure to risk rose again, with hate speech (35%), scams (29%), and cyberbullying (23%) among the most commonly experienced harms. At the same time, teens demonstrated striking resilience: 72% talked to someone after experiencing a risk, and reporting behavior increased for the second consecutive year. But worries about the misuse of AI continue, underscoring again why safety-by-design for AI is essential, not optional. Find the full results and country-level summaries here. 

Year on year, the research has told a story of evolving online safety risks and of the real-world impact. In 2026, the call to action is more urgent than ever—unless industry can deliver safe and age-appropriate experiences, young people risk losing access to technology. At Microsoft, spanning across our teams from Windows to Xbox, we have sought to continuously evolve our approach and to lead industry in advancing tailored and thoughtful safety solutions.   

Evolving to meet the moment 

Looking ahead, we know we need to continue to build strong guardrails to tackle acute risks and to leverage our experience while being informed by new research, new perspectives, and new technologies. The application process closed yesterday for our first AI Futures Youth Council, to be comprised of teens from across the US and EU. We’re looking forward to bringing those teens together soon for a first meeting to get their direct feedback on the role they want emerging technology to play in their lives and how we can best support their safety.  

Microsoft has partnered with Cyberlite on a second youth-centered initiative to understand how teens aged 13–17 are engaging with AI companions. Through codesign workshops with students in India and Singapore, we’re capturing young people’s own perspectives on the benefits, risks, and emotional dimensions of AI use—insights that will directly inform educational resources for teens, parents, and educators. Early findings from the first workshop in December 2025 show that young people value AI as a judgment free space while also recognizing the tradeoffs: privacy risks, overreliance, and erosion of critical thinking loom larger for them than bad advice.  

We’re also thinking about how we define safety in the next era of Windows, leveraging the Family Safety controls that have been integrated for over a decade. As many countries have raised the local age for digital consent, more parents will have the option to enable parental controls for teens up to the age of 18—leveraging these tools as part of a holistic approach to digital parenting. And to help parents set up and understand Family Safety, we’ve developed a short new guide. 

Safety is also about transparency, empowerment, and education. At Xbox, bringing the joy of gaming to everyone means remaining transparent about the many ways we innovate so players, parents, and caregivers can feel confident that Xbox continues to be a place for positive play. You can read more about our recently published Xbox Transparency Report and the tools and resources available to players on the Xbox Wire blog.  

We’re also excited to announce the latest release in Minecraft Education’s CyberSafe series: CyberSafe: Bad Connection? This series of immersive Minecraft worlds and educational resources is free and helps translate complex risks into fun learning experiences that meet young people in their favorite blocky world. Bad Connection?—the fifth in the series—reflects our commitment to evolving to meet new and challenging risks, with a focus on tackling serious risks related to online recruitment and radicalization. Learn more about how to access this new Minecraft world here.  

The CyberSafe series has reached more than 80 million downloads since 2022 through a partnership between Minecraft Education, Xbox, and Microsoft, helping a generation of young players build the agency, resilience, and digital citizenship they need to navigate an increasingly online world. As part of our commitment to ensure people have the knowledge and skills they need to benefit from technology and stay safe, Microsoft Elevate is empowering educators and students with tools and guidance to build safer, more responsible digital habits, recognizing that AI is transforming how people learn, work, and connect. Our commitment to helping young people access technology safely is also why we’ve partnered with organizations, like the National 4-H Council to prepare young people for an AI-powered world through AI literacy and digital safety curriculum and game-based learning with Minecraft Education. 

As we look ahead, our goal is clear: build technology that is safe by design, guided by evidence, and informed through partnership. The internet has changed profoundly over the past decade, and so too have the expectations of the people who use it. Safer Internet Day is a reminder that progress requires sustained collaboration across industry, civil society, researchers, and families.

—  

Global Online Safety Survey Methodology  

Microsoft has published annual research since 2016 that surveys how people of varying ages use and view online technology. This latest consumer-based report is based on a survey of nearly 15,000 teens (13–17) and adults that was conducted this past summer in 15 countries examining people’s attitudes and perceptions about online safety tools and interactions. Responses to online safety differ depending on the country. Full results can be accessed here.  

 

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Microsoft’s 5-point plan to partner with local communities across the United States

This year marks America’s 250^th year of independence. One of the trends that has repeatedly shaped the nation’s history is again in the news. As we’re experiencing at Microsoft, AI is the latest in a long line of new technologies to require large-scale infrastructure development.

Microsoft today is launching a new initiative to build what we call Community-First AI Infrastructure—a commitment to do this work differently than some others and to do it responsibly. This commits us to the concrete steps needed to be a good neighbor in the communities where we build, own, and operate our datacenters. It reflects our sense of civic responsibility as well as a broad and long-term view of what it will take to run a successful AI infrastructure business. In short, we will set a high bar.

As we launch this initiative, we think about it in the context of both the headlines of the day and the lessons from the past. Beginning in the 1770s, the country has advanced through successive eras built on huge infrastructure development based on canals, railroads, power plants, and the electrical grid, followed by the telephone system, highways, and airports. AI infrastructure has become the next chapter in this story.

Like major buildouts of the past, AI infrastructure is expensive and complex. Investments are advancing at a rapid pace. Today, these require large-scale spending by the private sector in land, construction, electricity, liquid cooling, high-bandwidth connectivity, and operations. This revives a longstanding question: how can our nation build transformative infrastructure in a way that strengthens, rather than strains, the local communities where it takes root?

Large AI investments are accelerating just as datacenter concerns are growing in local communities. The pattern is familiar. Whether it was canals, railroads, the electrical grid, or the interstate highway system, each era produced its own conflicts over who bore the burdens of progress. One enduring lesson is that successful infrastructure buildouts will only progress when communities feel that the gains outweigh the costs. Long-term success requires a commitment to address public needs, including by the private companies making these investments.

This must start by understanding local concerns. Residential electricity rates have recently risen in dozens of states, driven in part by several years of inflation, supply chain constraints, and long-overdue grid upgrades. Communities value new jobs and property tax revenue, but not if they come with higher power bills or tighter water supplies. Without addressing these issues directly, even supportive communities will question the role of datacenters in their backyard.

As a company, we believe in the many positive advances AI will bring to America’s future. From stronger economic growth to better medical advances and more affordable products, we believe AI will make a difference in everyday lives. But we also recognize that AI, like other fundamental technological shifts, will create new challenges as well. And we believe that tech companies like Microsoft have both a unique opportunity to help contribute to these advances and a heightened responsibility to address these challenges head-on.

This Community-First AI Infrastructure Initiative provides a framework for doing exactly that. It is anchored in five commitments, each a clear promise to the communities where we build, own, and operate Microsoft datacenters. These are:

1. We’ll pay our way to ensure our datacenters don’t increase your electricity prices.
2. We’ll minimize our water use and replenish more of your water than we use.
3. We’ll create jobs for your residents.
4. We’ll add to the tax base for your local hospitals, schools, parks, and libraries.
5. We’ll strengthen your community by investing in local AI training and nonprofits.

We describe our plans in detail below. We recognize that these will evolve and improve, based most importantly on what we learn from ongoing engagement with local communities across the country. We’ll also follow this plan for Community-First AI Infrastructure with similar plans for other countries, shaped to reflect their local needs and traditions.

But we are choosing the beginning of 2026 in Washington, DC to launch this effort in the United States. Our goal is to move quickly, partner with local communities, and bring these commitments to life in the first half of this year.

1.Electricity: We’ll pay our way to ensure our datacenters don’t increase your electricity prices.

There’s no denying that AI consumes large amounts of electricity. While advances in technology may someday change this, today, this is the reality.

The United States will retain its AI leadership role only if AI infrastructure can tap into a rapidly growing supply of electricity. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that US datacenter electricity demand will more than triple by 2035, growing from 200 terawatt-hours to 640 terawatt-hours per year. This growth is taking place alongside rapid electrification of manufacturing and other sectors of the economy.

Our nation is addressing this reality at a demanding time. Even in the absence of datacenter construction, the United States is facing major electricity challenges. Much of the country’s electricity transmission infrastructure is more than 40 years old, and it’s under strain. Supply chain constraints on transformers and high-voltage equipment are delaying upgrades that would enable existing lines to deliver more electricity. New transmission can take more than 7 to 10 years due to permitting and siting delays. This creates a mismatch with growing electricity demand.

Some have suggested that AI will be so beneficial that the public should help pay for the added electricity the country needs for it. We believe in the benefits AI will create, but we disagree with this approach. Especially when tech companies are so profitable, we believe that it’s both unfair and politically unrealistic for our industry to ask the public to shoulder added electricity costs for AI. Instead, we believe the long-term success of AI infrastructure requires that tech companies pay their own way for the electricity costs they create.

This will require that we take four steps, and we’re committed to each:

First, we’ll ask utilities and public commissions to set our rates high enough to cover the electricity costs for our datacenters. This includes the costs of adding and using the electricity infrastructure needed for the datacenters we build, own, and operate. We will work closely with utility companies that set electricity prices and state commissions that approve these prices. Our goal is straightforward: to ensure that the electricity cost of serving our datacenters is not passed on to residential customers.

In some areas, communities are already starting to benefit from this approach. In Wyoming, for example, Microsoft and Black Hills Energy have developed an innovative utility partnership that ensures our datacenter growth strengthens—rather than burdens—the local community. And as part of our datacenter investment in Wisconsin, we are supporting a new rate structure that would charge “Very Large Customers,” including datacenters, the cost of the electricity required to serve them. This protects residents by preventing those costs from being passed on. But we recognize the need to ensure that datacenter communities benefit everywhere. We believe this approach can and should be a model for other states.

Second, we’ll collaborate early, closely, and transparently with local utilities to add electricity and the supporting infrastructure to the grid when needed for our datacenters. Addressing electricity costs is critical, but it is an incomplete solution for local communities unless we expand electricity supply. This expansion typically requires a complex effort that includes the expansion of electrical generation capacity and improvements in transmission and substation systems.

We’re committed to collaborating with local utilities. We will sit down and plan together, providing early transparency around our projected power requirements and contracting in advance for the electricity we will use. When our datacenter expansion requires improvements in transmission and substation capabilities, we will continue our existing practices by paying for these improvements.

This work will build on a spirit of partnership with utilities we’ve worked to foster across the country. For example, in the wholesale energy market that covers much of the Midwest called the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), we have contracted to add 7.9 GW of new electricity generation to the grid, which is more than double our current consumption.

Third, we’ll pursue innovation to make our datacenters more efficient. We are also using AI to reduce energy use and improve the performance of our software and hardware in the design and management of our datacenters. And we are collaborating closely with utilities to leverage tools like AI to improve planning, get more electricity from existing lines and equipment, improve system resilience and durability, and speed the development of new infrastructure, including nuclear energy technologies.

By embedding these innovations into datacenters and by collaborating directly with local utilities, communities gain access to systems that are more efficient, more reliable, and better prepared to support growth without increasing costs for households.

Fourth, we’ll advocate for the state and national public policies needed to support our neighboring communities with affordable, reliable, and sustainable power. Public policy plays an essential role in supporting communities with affordable, reliable, and sustainable access to electricity. In 2022, Microsoft established priorities for electricity policy advocacy: expanding clean electricity generation, modernizing the grid, and engaging local communities. Over the past three years, we have advocated across all three areas and engaged with government leaders at the federal, state, and local levels to do so. To date, however, progress has been uneven. This needs to change.

We will advocate for policies across these areas with an urgent focus on accelerating project permitting and interconnection of electricity projects, expediting the planning and expansion of the electricity grid, and designing new electricity rates for large electricity users.

2. Water: We’ll minimize our water use and replenish more of your water than we use.

Across the country, communities are asking pointed questions about how datacenters use water. These are arising in places already facing water stress, like Phoenix and Atlanta, as well as regions with more abundant supply, like Wisconsin. These concerns are often amplified by aging municipal water systems and infrastructure gaps. Local communities want and deserve reassurance that new AI infrastructure won’t strain their water resources.

Our commitment ensures that our presence will strengthen local water systems rather than burden them. We’ll do this by reducing the amount of water we use and by investing in local water systems and water replenishment projects.

First, we’re committed to reducing the amount of water our datacenters use. The chips that power datacenters produce heat. To manage that heat, datacenters historically relied upon evaporative cooling systems that drew on large volumes of water for cooling in hot weather. As AI workloads have increased, the demand for cooling has increased. The GPU chips that power AI workloads run at very high temperatures; without proper cooling, these chips would burn out within minutes.

The good news is that the tech sector has invested in new innovations to address these cooling needs. Now is the time when we need to step up, use these new technologies, and take added steps to address water use concerns.

Across our entire owned fleet of datacenters, we are committed as a company to a 40 percent improvement in datacenter water-use intensity by 2030. We are optimizing water usage for cooling, improving our ability to balance between water-based cooling and air cooling based on environmental conditions. We have also launched a new AI datacenter design that uses a closed-loop system. By constantly recirculating a cooling liquid, we can dramatically cut our water usage. In this next-generation design, already deployed in locations such as Wisconsin and Georgia, potable water is no longer needed for cooling, reducing pressure on local freshwater systems.

For communities where water infrastructure constraints pose challenges, we will collaborate with local utilities to understand whether current systems can support the additional demand associated with datacenter growth. If sufficient capacity does not exist, we work with our engineering teams to identify solutions that avoid burdening the community.

This approach will build on what we’ve learned from the recent work at our datacenters in Quincy, Washington, an arid region where the local groundwater supply was already under pressure. To avoid drawing from the community’s potable water, we partnered with the city to construct the Quincy Water Reuse Utility, which treats and recirculates datacenter cooling water rather than relying on local groundwater. This approach protects limited drinking-water supplies while ensuring that high-quality, recycled water can be used for datacenter cooling needs. Where future system improvements are required, Microsoft funds those upgrades in full, ensuring that the community doesn’t have to shoulder the cost of supporting our operations.

We also partner with utilities from day one to map out water, wastewater, and pressure needs, and we fully fund the infrastructure required for growth, ensuring local water systems are resilient. Beyond our own footprint, we invest directly in community water infrastructure, modernizing water systems, expanding access, increasing water reliability, and helping utilities maintain stable rates and pressure. For example, near our datacenter in Leesburg, Virginia, Microsoft is funding more than $25 million of water and sewer improvements to ensure the cost of serving our facilities does not fall on local ratepayers.

Second, we will ensure that we replenish more water than we withdraw. This means restoring measurable amounts of water to the same water districts where our datacenter’s water is used, so the total water returned exceeds total water used. This standard provides greater transparency and precision in tracking and reporting, aligned with emerging industry standards.

We will pursue projects that make the most important water contribution to each local community. For example, in the greater Phoenix area and nearby Nevada communities, our leak detection partnerships with local utilities identify and repair hidden breaks in aging water systems, preventing water losses and keeping municipal water in circulation for community use. These projects both add to the total usable water supply and improve the reliability of service for residents.

Across the Midwest, we are restoring historic oxbow wetlands. These are crescent-shaped water bodies that naturally recharge groundwater, reduce flood risk, and enhance habitats for native species. These wetlands act as nature’s reservoirs, capturing and slowly returning water to local aquifers throughout both wet seasons and droughts, creating year-round value for farms, ecosystems, and nearby communities.

Overall, we approach replenishment the same way a household might think about a bank account: our operations make water withdrawals, and our replenishment projects make deposits. Some deposits, like our leak detection projects, go straight into the checking account—depositing water into the municipal supply for immediate community use. Others, like wetland restoration, go into a savings account—investing in the watershed’s long-term capacity to store and supply the region. These projects are evaluated using recognized methods that convert on-the-ground improvements into measurable gallons (or cubic meters) of water restored to local ecosystems, ensuring that commitments reflect tangible local benefits, not abstract promises.

Third, we will support this work with greater local transparency. People deserve to know how much water our datacenters use, and we are committed to making that information accessible, clear, and easy to understand. Aligned with this goal, we will begin publishing water-use data for each datacenter region in the country, as well as our progress on replenishment. This approach will ensure that communities can understand both our operational footprint and the progress we are making against our water-positive goals.

Fourth, we will advocate for public policies to help minimize water use and strengthen resilience. This means championing policies that enable sustainable growth while safeguarding community resources. We will support state and federal efforts to make reclaimed and industrial recycled water the default supply for datacenters wherever feasible. We will advocate for harmonized transparency standards that allow communities to clearly understand water use and stewardship practices. And we will work to reduce permitting delays by promoting predictable pathways for water-efficient datacenter projects.

These actions reflect our belief that technology and environmental responsibility must advance together, ensuring that AI-driven progress aligns with long-term water resilience for people, places, and ecosystems. Our policy activities are rooted in protecting local communities. By prioritizing recycled water and efficiency, we will help reduce pressure on aging municipal systems and ensure reliable water access for people and businesses.

3.We’ll create jobs for your residents.

New datacenters create jobs—typically thousands during construction and hundreds during operations. For example, in Washington state more than 1,300 skilled trades workers are building Microsoft datacenters and by the end of next year more than 650 full-time employees and contractors will work across all our operational facilities there.

One of our goals is to help ensure that workers from the local community benefit from these opportunities. To achieve this, we will invest in new partnerships to help give local residents the skills and opportunities to fill these jobs in both the construction and operational phases.

The AI infrastructure construction boom is driving large-scale physical development, creating a huge demand for skilled tradespeople nationwide. As datacenters and the energy projects that support them grow quickly, firms are vying for a limited workforce. At one level, this is good news for people who already have the qualifications these jobs require. But at another level, there is a risk the jobs will not go to local residents who want to pursue these jobs unless they can acquire the skills required.

We will take a multifaceted approach.

First, we will invest in partnerships to help train local workers to support the construction and maintenance of datacenters. This includes a new and first-of-its-kind partnership between Microsoft and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) to strengthen apprenticeship and training programs in the skilled trades where datacenters are being built. We are launching today a new agreement that establishes a cooperative framework to focus on building a pipeline of skilled workers in regions where we are building datacenters. This will also help enable NABTU to identify qualified contractor partners to bid on our infrastructure projects.

Second, we will expand our Datacenter Academy program to train individuals to fill ongoing datacenter operations roles. This program works in partnership with local community colleges and vocational schools to train students for critical roles in datacenter operations and related careers, once construction is complete.

A good example of this work is our Datacenter Academy partnerships in Boydton, Virginia, where we have a large datacenter campus. The Academy works with Southside Virginia Community College and the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, which have helped hundreds of students and adult learners earn industry-recognized certifications in information technology and critical facilities operations.

In 2024, this work expanded with the opening of a new Critical Environment Training Lab (SoVA) in South Hill. This provides hands-on training with electrical, mechanical, and cooling systems using decommissioned datacenter equipment donated by Microsoft. Graduates of these programs have gone on to pursue careers supporting datacenter operations in Southern Virginia, including roles with Microsoft and the broader ecosystem of companies that help operate and maintain digital infrastructure. We will pursue similar partnerships in other states, and we are committed to making this an ongoing part of our work in the communities where we build new datacenters.

Third, we will use our voice to encourage policymakers to support these new job opportunities. While this work is of heightened importance in communities with datacenters, the broader need for this type of skilled labor is national in scope. According to LinkedIn data, job postings for data center occupations or requiring at least one core data center skill, such as data center operations, grew by 23 percent globally and 13.5 percent in the US year-over-year in 2025. This is likely to represent an ongoing trend. Over the next decade, trillions in private investment will offer steady employment opportunities for American workers—including electricians, pipefitters, HVAC techs, welders, and construction crews—alongside manufacturing technicians for related components, like chips, power generation, and cooling systems.

However, this rapid demand for skilled labor is set to outpace the available pipeline of workers. Today, the Associated Builders and Contractors estimates that the construction industry is short roughly 439,000 workers, mostly among skilled workers who do things like lay pipe and wire electrical panels.[1] Manufacturers report shortages as well, with the CEO of Ford Motor Company recently highlighting 5,000 open mechanic jobs that pay more than $100,000 per year. And for datacenter operations, employers face shortages in hands-on infrastructure skills such as cabling, racking, and network hardware.

This problem is exacerbated by the demographics of an aging workforce and a decades-old policy trend of deprioritizing vocational education for young Americans. A generation of skilled workers, vocationally trained in high schools and apprenticeships in the 20^th century, are retiring from the trades. In the first quarter-century of the 21^st century, high schools pivoted towards preparing young people for higher education and advanced degrees, often at the expense of traditional shop classes and training in skilled craftsmanship.

The increased demand for skilled trades, paired with an aging workforce, requires an enhanced public-private workforce partnership. Secondary schools in the US can be incentivized to do more to educate young people about the trades through vocational schools and pre-apprenticeship programs. Registered apprenticeship programs offered nationally provide a fulfilling career path with long-term wages and benefits.

In partnership with labor, the federal government can champion a national apprenticeship and workforce development initiative that helps young and aspiring American workers near AI infrastructure projects, especially in rural and post-industrial regions. President Trump’s AI Action Plan rightly identifies this opportunity, and we will work closely with the Department of Labor to help scale this effort. The federal government can also help by streamlining the process by which businesses can establish and maintain a registered apprenticeship program. They can also maximize the use of existing federal dollars that directly support registered apprenticeship programs. This could entail modernizing the regulations for the National Apprenticeship Act or updating the statutory language itself.

4.We will add to the tax base for your local hospitals, schools, parks, and libraries.

One of the most tangible benefits from datacenter development is invisible to an individual driving nearby. It’s the property taxes paid by datacenters to the local municipality, which are substantial. But this too requires that the private sector take a responsible approach, as described below.

We won’t ask local municipalities to reduce their local property tax rates when we buy land or propose a datacenter presence. Instead, we’ll pay our full and fair share of local property taxes, adding revenue to local towns and cities. This is obviously critical to supporting the growth a local community often experiences when datacenters are built or expanded. And most importantly, at a time when many communities are facing revenue shortages that threaten vital public assets like hospitals, schools, parks, and libraries, we know from experience that this can make a big difference.

The benefits of this approach are nowhere more apparent than in Quincy, Washington, a small agricultural community about 150 miles east of Seattle where Microsoft built its first datacenter in 2008. Since then, we have built more than twenty datacenters in the area, providing ongoing employment to thousands of construction workers for almost two decades. Hundreds of technicians enjoy permanent jobs in those datacenters, earning salaries well above the median income for Quincy. And we estimate that for every direct construction job created, another one is created in related sectors, including security services, maintenance and repair, retail, restaurants, and more. Altogether, our datacenters drive more than $200 million in regional economic activity each year.

As a result, the share of Quincy residents living below the poverty line has been cut in half, dropping from 29.4 percent in 2013 to 13.1 percent in 2023. And county property tax revenues have more than tripled over the past two decades, from roughly $60 million to more than $180 million. This has enabled the city to invest in public services and amenities. Last year, as rural hospitals around the country cut back on critical care offerings and shuttered their doors, Quincy opened a new 54,000-square-foot medical center. The city has also made substantial renovations to its high school, adding state-of-the-art athletic facilities, an auditorium, and a career and technical training department.

We want to make sure that the other communities where our datacenters are located benefit from our presence in the same way. In all the regions where we build, own, and operate datacenters, we’re devoted to taking a civically responsible approach. This means recognizing the importance of civic services, including public safety, local healthcare, schools, libraries, and parks. As we become an important local employer, local communities can count on us to be a constructive contributor to local business and civic efforts.

5. We’ll strengthen your community by investing in local AI training and nonprofits.

We believe the datacenter communities that power AI should be among the first to benefit from it. As these communities help drive innovation and economic growth for the nation, it’s essential that they share in the economic, educational, and community benefits AI is creating. Especially as jobs evolve and require more AI skills, this requires local investments in AI education and training. To support this goal, we will provide free, age-appropriate, best-in-class AI training and education in these communities in partnership with trusted, local community-based organizations.

For years, we have been helping people gain essential digital skills in communities in and around our datacenters, such as Quincy in Eastern Washington, Boydton in Southern Virginia, and Mt. Pleasant in Southeast Wisconsin. One thing we’ve learned is that these communities have vibrant anchor institutions—schools, libraries, and local chambers of commerce—that form the backbone of local learning, workforce development, and economic growth. That’s why our approach as we go forward will be to invest in communities with our datacenters to partner with and provide support to these anchor institutions so that every community member can leverage the power of AI in how they live, work, and learn.

First, we will partner with local K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities to provide age-appropriate, responsible AI literacy training and learning experiences for students and teachers in our datacenter communities. This will build on some of our most recent experiences. For example, in Quincy, Washington, we partnered with Quincy High School and the local FFA chapter to teach students the critical AI and data skills needed for careers in precision agriculture. And in our datacenter region in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin, we recently launched an AI bootcamp for students and faculty with Gateway Technical College to cultivate a new generation of developers and creators of AI tools and technology across Wisconsin technical colleges.

Our commitment is to build on this work to help students and teachers responsibly and effectively engage with AI, create with AI, manage AI, and design with AI by bringing free, locally relevant, responsible AI training that is aligned with AI literacy standards to students in every K-12 school, community college, and university in our datacenter markets.

Second, we will support adults in our datacenter communities with AI tools and skills by creating neighborhood AI learning hubs in partnership with local libraries in our key datacenter markets. This approach will build upon our previous digital skilling partnerships with local libraries. For example, during COVID, we partnered with libraries in rural communities across the country, and more recently, we helped train libraries in our Quincy and Mt. Pleasant datacenter markets on AI so that they could help their patrons learn AI skills. Building on this work, we will invest in AI literacy skills development for librarians and provide access to free AI literacy training and certifications to local library patrons, including by equipping public terminals at local libraries in our datacenter regions with AI tools and services.

Third, we will support AI skills training for small businesses. We recognize that AI training will be critical for small businesses as they navigate the transition to the AI economy. These businesses are the backbone of local economies, and their success directly impacts job creation, workforce stability, and community vitality. Through a new workforce transformation initiative, we will deliver AI training, tools, and insights to local chambers of commerce that support these small businesses. We will also provide flexible grants for AI training and upskilling to local chambers of commerce and a variety of workforce organizations to help local businesses upskill employees, adopt AI responsibly, and prepare their workforce for ongoing transformation—ensuring that economic opportunity stays rooted in the communities where we build and operate datacenters.

Finally, we will invest in your local nonprofit community. A defining aspect of Microsoft’s own history and culture has long been a commitment to support the many nonprofit organizations that are vital to every community the company calls home. As we expand our datacenters in new communities, we’re committed to bringing this role to these new regions.

This starts with support for our employees in the local community. We provide two key benefits to all our full-time employees. First, we will match every hour they spend volunteering for a nonprofit with a donation to that group of $25. Second, we’ll match each dollar they donate to a nonprofit with an equal donation by Microsoft. These give all our employees, including in our datacenters, a total potential match of $15,000 each year.

This approach to community engagement is an important part of Microsoft’s culture, and it has become the largest nonprofit charitable matching program in the history of business. In 2024 in the United States, it raised $229.1 million in donations for 29,000 nonprofits, plus 964,000 volunteer hours contributed by our employees. It’s a part of Microsoft we’re excited to bring to the communities that have our datacenters.

We recognize that our support for the local community also needs to go beyond this type of program. Our broader contribution must start with listening. You know best what your town needs, what nonprofits are making a difference, and which organizations are best positioned to do more. We will provide locally based Microsoft liaisons in major US datacenter communities to work side by side with local leaders and nonprofits. Our local staff will provide a community connection to our various Microsoft teams and resources. Working together, we will shape our direction and connection to help further our support for local nonprofits.

Conclusion

Many lessons emerge from the nation’s 250-year history relating to technology and infrastructure. The first is that large-scale infrastructure expansion is vital to economic growth and everyday improvements in people’s lives. Our lives today rely on electrical appliances, automobiles, phones, airplanes, and much more that would be impossible without modern infrastructure.

But a second lesson illustrates an important tension. Major infrastructure expansion is always difficult. It’s expensive. It inevitably raises questions, concerns, and even controversies. This has been true for more than 200 years, and we should assume it will be true well into the future. This always requires that important decisions be made by government leaders from village presidents and town councils to the American President and Congress.

Third, the most important decisions are often made at the local level. This reflects the outsized impact—both positive and negative—of infrastructure expansion at the local level. It also reflects the American political tradition and our zoning and permitting laws, which rightly put decision-making authority closest to those elected to serve local communities.

There’s a final lesson that speaks most directly to us. Private companies can help by stepping up and acting in a responsible way. We cannot surmount inevitable community challenges by ourselves. But we can make everything easier by embracing a long-term vision. By recognizing our responsibility. By playing a constructive role. And by supporting the entire community.

As we look to the future, we are committing to taking this final lesson to heart. And making it a fundamental part of our efforts every day.

[1] News Releases | ABC: Construction Industry Must Attract 439,000 W

 

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Since opening our first Canadian office in Toronto in 1985, Microsoft has played an important role in every chapter of Canada’s digital story, long before cloud and AI were household words. That history matters. Over four decades, our company and our thousands of employees have grown alongside Canada. We’ve developed a deep appreciation for this nation’s culture, values, needs, and important role in the world.

Today we are announcing the most important commitment in Microsoft Canada’s history. We’re adding to our investments—with a total of $19 billion CAD between 2023 and 2027, including more than $7.5 billion CAD in the next two years. We’re building new digital and AI infrastructure needed for the nation’s growth and prosperity, with new capacity beginning to come online in the second half of 2026. Equally important, we’re launching a new five-point plan to promote and protect Canada’s digital sovereignty. And we’re combining this with ongoing and new work to invest in Canada’s people, ensuring they have access to the skills needed to succeed in an AI era.

This builds upon Microsoft’s longstanding and deep relationship with the Canadian people. With more than 5,300 employees across 11 cities nationwide, including Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Quebec City, we have employees in every region to bring talent closer to the communities we serve.

Beyond our own team, based on third party estimates, we’re fueling the broader tech ecosystem with more than 17,000 companies that are Microsoft partners in Canada generating between $33B CAD and $41B CAD in annual revenue. Based on this partnership model, Microsoft helps support 426,000 jobs across Canada, including close to 300,000 people who build solutions on Microsoft platforms or provide goods and services for these efforts. As we expand our AI and cloud footprint, these partnerships are helping Canadian organizations to modernize and compete globally.

Our commitment also extends beyond business. In 2024 alone, we donated $219M CAD in grants, employee giving, and technology services to Canadian non-profits and charities.

At its core, our commitment to Canada centres on three things: technology, trust, and talent.

Technology: Building the Backbone of Canada’s Digital Future

Canada’s AI transformation is accelerating. According to Microsoft’s AI Diffusion Leaderboard, Canada ranks 14th globally in AI adoption, with usage now topping a third of the population. Developer contributions are growing too with Canada ranking 14th worldwide in GitHub AI contributors.

This momentum is clear. Canada is a leader not just in AI research, but in putting AI to good use. But sustaining this momentum requires more than enthusiasm. It demands advanced AI infrastructure, sovereign safeguards, world-class cybersecurity, and a skilled workforce to keep pace with innovation. That’s why Microsoft is investing to create a secure, sustainable, and scalable backbone for AI adoption, empowering Canada to lead confidently in the AI era.

Our investment expands our Azure Canada Central and Canada East datacentre regions, delivering sustainable, secure, and scalable cloud and AI capabilities. These datacentres will power everything from modernized public services to advanced AI innovation—responsibly and within Canadian borders.

Every facility and datacentre we build in Canada reflects Microsoft’s global commitment to sustainability. We’re designing our facilities to be energy-efficient, powered increasingly by renewable energy, and optimized for water conservation through advanced cooling technologies. These steps align with our pledge to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030, ensuring that as we expand our AI and cloud footprint, we do so responsibly—minimizing environmental impact while supporting Canada’s clean energy goals.

Since early 2023, these investments have already launched major infrastructure projects, created thousands of jobs, and partnered with Canadian innovators to drive sustainability and economic growth. These datacentres also translate into thousands of construction and permanent engineering and technology jobs, partnerships with Canadian digital innovators, and a surge in local economic opportunity.

Our infrastructure expansion has helped transform and develop new industries—from retail and finance to cleantech and quantum computing. Firms like Canadian Tire, Manulife, BMO, and Gay Lea Foods are embracing AI to transform their businesses, and their stories are a testament to Canada’s leadership in digital adoption.

To help achieve our 2030 sustainability goals, Microsoft is also investing in Canadian cleantech innovation. Canada is recognized as a global leader in cleantech and carbon removal technologies, and we are proud to collaborate with outstanding Canadian companies like Eavor, Cyclic Materials, Arca, Deep Sky, and Carbon Engineering (via 1PointFive).

Trust: A Five-Point Plan to Protect Canada’s Digital Sovereignty

As important as our investment in AI infrastructure is the new company-wide initiative we are launching to protect Canada’s digital sovereignty. This builds on technology and expertise across Microsoft and is based on a five-part plan to defend Canada’s cybersecurity, keep Canadian data on Canadian soil, strengthen privacy protection, support leading local AI developers, and ensure the continuity of cloud and AI services.

Defending Canada’s cybersecurity

As we enter the second quarter of the 21^st century, the protection of digital sovereignty starts with the protection of cybersecurity. Reflecting Microsoft’s long-term presence in Canada, we appreciate how much has changed since the century began. During the first quarter of the century, Canada’s population grew by more than 28 percent and its GDP in real terms grew by more than 55 percent. Changing geopolitics and navigation in the Arctic Ocean have put Canada in a more important global position than ever.

Canada’s growth and importance have made the country a bigger cybersecurity target.

Microsoft has long prioritized the protection of Canadian cybersecurity. With unmatched threat intelligence capabilities based on 100 trillion signals from around the world every day, we’ve seen increasing international targeting of Canadian digital assets, especially from China, Russia, North Korea, and countries across south Asia and the Middle East. This has included influence operations in advance of elections and digital espionage focused on government agencies.

Even more significant, Canada’s diverse and robust economy has become a target of sophisticated international ransomware attacks. Organized criminal groups—some with nation state sponsorship—are targeting every sector of the economy and the public, and they are starting to rely on even more sophisticated technology and techniques, including AI. Our assessment is that in 2025 more than half of cyberattacks against Canada with known motives have been based on financial objectives, and 80 percent of them have involved efforts to exfiltrate data. Almost 20 percent have targeted the healthcare and education sectors, which creates more widespread threats to the public.

To strengthen our protection of Canada’s cybersecurity, we are launching today in Ottawa a dedicated Threat Intelligence Hub. This Hub will house Microsoft subject matter experts in threat intelligence, threat protection research, and applied AI security research. They will have access to Microsoft threat intelligence data and assets from around the world, so they can work closely with the Government of Canada and law enforcement partners to track and interdict nation state actors and organized crime.

In recent months, our team in Canada has been working to thwart China-based threat actors and has been sharing intelligence related to North Korean IT workers using stolen or fake identities to secure jobs with technology companies in Canada. We are dedicated to making this cybersecurity protection even stronger going forward.

Keeping Canadian Data on Canadian Soil

We also recognize the importance of ensuring that our Canadian customers can keep their local data on Canadian soil. This is why we embarked a decade ago, in close consultation with national leaders, to build and open our first two Canadian datacentres to provide local data residency in Toronto and Quebec City. We have steadily expanded our local services each year since. In 2026, we will take three new steps to keep Canadian data on Canadian soil.

First, we will strengthen sovereign controls and expand our data residency commitments by offering in-country data processing for Copilot interactions.

 

Second, we will expand our Azure Local offering in Canada to enable the extension of Azure capabilities to customer-owned environments such as private cloud and on-premises infrastructure.

And third, we will launch Sovereign AI Landing Zone (SAIL) in Canada. This is an open-source AI Landing Zone whose code will be hosted publicly on GitHub, and which will provide a secure foundation for deploying AI solutions within Canada’s borders, so organizations can build, scale, and innovate while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and compliance.

Protecting Canadian privacy

We recognize that privacy is a cornerstone of digital trust. We have long protected the digital privacy of people across Canada. As we look to 2026, we will build on this strong foundation with new technical capabilities and legal measures.

Next year, Microsoft will bring the latest confidential computing capabilities to our Canadian datacentre regions. Confidential computing in Azure enables organizations to keep data encrypted and isolated, even while in use, helping meet stringent digital sovereignty requirements. Azure Key Vault will also be available to Canadian customers, supporting external key management and allowing encryption keys to remain under customer control, whether stored on-premises or with a trusted third-party Hardware Security Module (HSM).

We will couple these technical measures with expanded contractual protection. We are codifying our promise to protect our Canadian customers’ data with a contractual commitment, in which we agree to challenge any government demand for Canadian government or commercial customer data where we have a legal basis for doing so.

Supporting Canada’s AI developers

Canada’s growing AI and digital ecosystem also requires protection and support for the nation’s leading AI developers. We have expanded this work in 2025 and will continue to prioritize these efforts in the year ahead.

Our work with Cohere exemplifies this commitment: we are welcoming Cohere into the Microsoft Foundry’s first-party model lineup, making their advanced language models—Command A, Embed 4, and Rerank—accessible on Azure. This will amplify Canadian innovation on a global stage. This partnership is built on more than technology; it is grounded in trust and shared values, with initiatives to help Cohere scale across Canada and worldwide.

We will explore new ways to integrate Cohere’s sovereign, made-in-Canada AI models into Microsoft services, helping to ensure Canadian enterprises and the public sector benefit from secure, locally developed solutions that embody responsibility and integrity. Together with Canada’s leading innovators, we are building relationships that deliver opportunity and impact while reinforcing the trusted foundation of Canadian digital sovereignty.

Defending the continuity of Canadian cloud services

Finally, in the face of geopolitical uncertainty, continuity is essential. Microsoft pledges to rigorously defend the uninterrupted operation of cloud services for Canadian government customers. If ever confronted with an order to suspend or halt operations in Canada, we will pursue every available legal and diplomatic avenue—including litigation—to protect access to critical infrastructure. Our track record demonstrates our resolve to stand up for customer rights. We remain ready to reinforce this commitment through robust contractual agreements, confident in our ability to ensure the ongoing operation of Canadian datacentres. Ultimately, these efforts aim to deepen trust between people, institutions, and nations, grounded in mutual respect and a shared commitment to advancing Canada’s digital future.

Microsoft’s digital infrastructure in Canada is not built on wheels. It is permanent infrastructure, and fully subject to Canadian laws and regulations. We recognize and respect that our operations in Canada are governed by Canadian law, just as we adhere to local laws in every country where we operate.

Talent: Investing in the Future for Every Canadian

At its core, every datacentre we build and every AI capability we deploy is an investment in Canadians and their future. Because technology alone doesn’t drive transformation, people do. That’s why it’s imperative to ensure that every Canadian can develop the skills needed to succeed in an AI era.

The need is clear. By 2030, nearly 60 percent of workers worldwide will require new digital skills, yet today only 24 percent of Canadians have received AI training, compared to a global average of 39 percent. Closing this gap is critical for Canada’s competitiveness.

Our new Microsoft Elevate business unit is designed to put people first, making AI opportunities accessible across the country. Since July 2024, Microsoft Canada has engaged 5.7 million learners through free skilling programs, with more than 546,000 individuals completing an AI training course. And we’re not stopping there. By 2026, Microsoft Elevate will help 250,000 Canadians earn in-demand AI credentials, ensuring the workforce is ready for the next decade of innovation.

Our partnerships amplify this impact. The Nonprofit AI Impact Hub, developed with the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience (CCNDR) and Imagine Canada, strengthens the digital resilience of Canada’s 170,000 charities and nonprofits, which collectively employ 2.7 million people. Through role-based AI training and micro-credentials, we’re equipping this sector with tools to serve communities better.

We’re also investing in the next generation. Today, we are proud to announce a new partnership with Actua, a national leader that brings STEM education to youth throughout Canada, including those in remote, rural, and Indigenous communities. Microsoft Canada and Actua are committed to working with Indigenous communities across Canada to support AI skills development, so that the benefits of AI are felt widely. This partnership will support Actua’s AI Ready and InSTEM (Indigenous Youth in STEM) programs, to equip 20,000 young Canadians with essential AI skills. The InSTEM program will add AI learning for Indigenous youth, blending technology with cultural heritage and knowledge. For instance, students learn how AI tools can help preserve Indigenous languages and support cultural identity.

Canada Can Count on Us

Few American companies have benefitted more than Microsoft from such longstanding ties to Canada. Living so close to the border, we have long appreciated the many attributes that make Canada so special. We share more than geography. We share priorities like security, sustainability, and inclusive growth.

Today, we’re taking this partnership to the next level. We believe Canada has what it takes to help lead the world in responsible AI innovation and adoption, and we’re committed to being a partner every step of the way.

The post Microsoft Deepens Its Commitment to Canada with Landmark $19B AI Investment appeared first on Microsoft On the Issues.

Around the world, the dangers of extreme weather are a daily reality. In 2024, extreme weather displaced or disrupted the lives of more than 800,000 people worldwide —a reminder that accurate, timely forecasts aren’t just about data; they’re about people. From farmers deciding when to plant to coastal communities preparing for hurricanes, better forecasting can save lives, protect infrastructure, and support economies. 

That is why Microsoft remains deeply committed to Aurora, an AI model designed to help scientists understand Earth systems in new ways. Trained on vast amounts of data, it’s tuned to model the Earth’s systems. Aurora has already shown promise across multiple scenarios, including predicting the weather, tracking hurricanes and air quality, and modeling ocean waves and energy flows. 

Today, we are reaffirming our commitment: keep Aurora open, collaborative, and impactful so researchers can innovate faster and deliver solutions that help communities prepare, adapt, and thrive. Scientific progress depends on openness and a strong global community, which is why Aurora will progress as an open-source platform, enabling scientists everywhere to contribute and apply it to new climate and weather challenges. 

The next phase: Fueling innovation through research partnerships

We’re collaborating with Professor Rich Turner, a leader in machine learning research, and his lab at the University of Cambridge through a Microsoft AI for Good grant and research scientists to continue development of Aurora. Originally developed by Microsoft Research AI for Science, with collaboration from Professor Turner, we believe Aurora has the potential to change the way scientists around the world can use AI for weather and climate science. 

Building on our SPARROW initiative, we’re also investing in research of open-source weather stations that can expand access to high-quality environmental data. These affordable, community-deployable systems are designed to help fill critical observation gaps and strengthen the dependability of weather predictions where they matter most. 

Making Aurora available to scientists everywhere

Aurora’s source code and model weights are already open—but we’re going further. Together with Turner and Cambridge, our AI for Good team will open-source future releases of Aurora and new models that are built upon it, including training pipelines. By making Aurora open and free to build upon, we’re enabling researchers and developers everywhere to collaborate, contribute, and drive innovation together. 

Empowering national meteorological services

As with any technology, the measure of success for tools like Aurora is to have a positive impact on the lives of people. Empowering national meteorological services across the Global South, along with the Global North, is a priority.  We’re particularly focused on the application of Aurora to help meteorological services develop and strengthen their own forecasting systems that are tailored to their own local environments. This will allow them to adapt, extend, and innovate on top of Aurora, improving the accuracy, reliability, and reach of their forecasts. 

Enabling a cross-industry ecosystem

Aurora is trained on one of the largest collections of atmospheric data ever assembled to develop an AI forecasting model. It’s then fine-tuned to perform a variety of specific tasks, like predicting wave height or air quality, using modest amounts of additional data.  

The application of such a model could unlock innovation across all kinds of other industries. For example, energy companies and commodity traders have expressed interest, particularly in seeing how Aurora can be adapted to better predict renewable power generation, anticipate extreme weather events, and help protect energy grids. 

We are excited to see our work on Aurora graduate from a research project into a truly collaborative, open-source effort. By opening Aurora to the global community, we’re enabling breakthroughs in scientific understanding that we hope will transform humanitarian aid, optimize energy systems, advance sustainability, and even reshape financial services. 

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Today, I had the pleasure of joining a range of leaders for timely, impactful discussions on child well-being in the age of AI at the Vatican, building on thoughtful conversations held during the United Nations General Assembly. These issues are top of mind globally, from parents to policymakers to physicians.

At Microsoft, we remain focused on our goal of empowering young people to use technology safely, mindfully, and in pursuit of social, educational, and economic opportunities. That means taking new steps spurred by regulation, such as new age verification measures for our UK Xbox users, as well as adapting our longstanding commitments to responsible AI and child online safety and privacy to build trust in the AI era. Today, we’re sharing new research on youth perspectives, announcing the AI Futures Youth Council to amplify teen voices, and offering policy recommendations to help families navigate the digital world with confidence.

Centering young people’s voices: Announcing the AI Futures Youth Council and new age assurance research

In 2017, Microsoft led the industry with our first Council for Digital Good—a forum where we could hear directly from young people about their experiences and perceptions of online risk. In 2025, with AI reshaping our world—and their future—we again need to center the voices of young people as we think about responsible design for AI and how we set students up for the future. We are actively working with teens from the Asia-Pacific region to develop our first “for teens, by teens” guide to AI chatbots. Today, I’m pleased to announce the upcoming launch of our first “AI Futures Youth Council,” bringing together teens from the US and Europe to have their say on their future. We’ll share more about the application process soon.

We know that a critical precursor to providing young people positive and productive online experiences is understanding which users are young people. Around the globe, the debate over how to achieve age assurance online continues unabated. We have been grateful to work with CIPL and the WeProtect Global Alliance over the last year to explore how to achieve improved age assurance that is consistent with fundamental rights of privacy and access to information. As with any other safety intervention, our goal is to be proportionate and thoughtful where we take new steps, which is why we have focused on gaming in the first instance—reflecting the responsibilities we have to our youngest users and our ongoing commitment to player safety.

To inform our strategy and the broader policy conversation, we partnered with Praesidio Safeguarding to better understand youth perspectives on age assurance approaches across the UK, Ghana, and Indonesia. We are pleased to share that research today. The findings reinforce the importance of transparency, choice, and trust: teens want clear explanations of how their data is used, express concerns about exclusion where formal proof of age is lacking and show varying comfort levels with the use of biometric and behavioral data. Notably, young people value parental involvement but also highlight the need for independence and privacy as they mature. The results also highlight some of the important differences across geographies. For example, teenagers in Ghana often not only share devices with their families but may also share an account—underscoring a need for nuanced global approaches at multiple layers of the technology stack.

These insights underscore our belief that proportionality—matching safeguards to actual risks—is essential to building trust and empowering youth online. They also highlight the need for age assurance models that are inclusive, flexible, and respectful of youth autonomy—especially in global contexts where device and account sharing are common. We remain committed to ongoing dialogue and innovation, ensuring that our solutions evolve alongside the needs and expectations of children, families, and society at large.

Our policy recommendations: Empower young people to use technology safely

We believe technology should empower young people, not put them at risk. Given the diverse range of online services, it is important to remember there is no single “digital seatbelt” to protect and empower young people online.

We therefore offer the following recommendations as policymakers, regulators, and experts continue to discuss these issues, building on our 2024 blog:

• Avoid blanket access restrictions. Age assurance requirements that block full access to a service—except in limited cases like sites dedicated to age-restricted content (e.g., pornography)—can unintentionally limit child rights, such as access to information. Instead, age assurance should be applied at the service level, target specific design features that pose heightened risks, and enable tailored experiences for children.
• Focus on the highest risks for impact, such as content and features associated with documented harms to children, and as determined through democratic processes. Providers should take steps to assess and mitigate risks to children on their services, while ensuring documentation requirements or compliance obligations do not inadvertently undermine safety. A risk-based and proportionate approach—grounded in clear criteria and supported by interoperable standards—can also help ensure that age assurance is applied where most needed, without introducing unnecessary friction. Providers of high-risk services should bear the responsibility of age assurance.

• Strengthen safeguards for AI companions. Recent tragic events have highlighted the need for continued care in developing AI companions, especially where these may be used by young people. At Microsoft, we are building AI services for empowerment and want the right guardrails in place to protect all users but welcome new, commonsense measures such as those enacted in California and Australia to reduce the potential harms related to suicide and self-injury risks, as well as to sexualized or violent content. We will continue to work closely with researchers and experts to understand and mitigate potential risks to young people in this fast-evolving field.
• Incentivize age-appropriate design. Banning kids from online services isn’t the answer, but what constitutes an “age-appropriate” experience will vary. We have supported a duty of care approach to child safety where the duty can be implemented flexibly, guided by thoughtful and evidence-based regulatory guidance. Ongoing research and expert engagement are needed to understand how to advance child safety and rights on diverse services—not just social media.
• Protect the privacy and security of all users. Tailoring age assurance requirements will help enable proportionate approaches to data processing. Current proposals for age verification by app stores risk creating significant privacy risks by collecting sensitive information and sharing unnecessary age data with a wide variety of services while also not solving the challenges lawmakers want to address. We continue to support federal privacy legislation in the US and encourage global efforts to develop standards and certifications for age assurance providers. Trusted credential sharing can also increasingly be enabled by emerging digital identity ecosystems—including government-issued IDs and wallet-based models—that preserve mutual privacy between issuers and relying parties.
• Support, not overwhelm Our Global Online Safety Survey results show that while parents might underestimate the risks teens face online, teens are most likely to turn to a parent for help. Parents should not face a deluge of notifications nor bear the sole responsibility for safety but have access, awareness, and education on family safety tools that can help them make informed choices appropriate for their family and their values.
• Foster multistakeholder collaboration. We believe it’s essential to elevate the voices and perspectives of young people, as well as for regulators and industry to engage with civil society and partner to advance practical solutions. As child safety regulations come into force, it will also be important to get feedback from affected communities on where regulation may have adverse rights impacts, as well as to understand where harm may have been averted. Public education will be needed to help all users understand why their online experiences might be changing.

We will continue learning, listening, and collaborating, especially with our new Council, and look forward to sharing our insights.

 

 

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Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we work, learn, and innovate—and it’s doing so at a pace that surpasses every major technology before it. Microsoft’s inaugural AI Diffusion Report offers a comprehensive look at how AI adoption is accelerating worldwide, drawing on data from more than 100 countries. In less than three years, more than 1.2 billion people have used AI tools, a rate of adoption faster than the internet, the personal computer, or even the smartphone. This rapid diffusion underscores AI’s potential as a general-purpose technology but also highlights the urgent need to ensure equitable access.

The report introduces three indices—the AI Frontier Index, the AI Infrastructure Index, and the AI Diffusion Index—to help policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders understand where breakthroughs are happening, where capacity exists to scale, and where AI is being used to improve lives. These insights show that adoption is fastest where connectivity and digital infrastructure are strongest, while nearly four billion people still lack the basics needed to participate in the AI economy. Bridging this gap is essential to avoid deepening global divides.

Beyond the numbers, the report illustrates the need for collaborative action to expand access to digital infrastructure, strengthen skills development, and promote responsible AI policies. By investing in these foundational elements, governments and organizations can unlock AI’s potential for growth and innovation. The data makes clear that speed alone does not guarantee shared prosperity—broad accessibility does.

To explore the full findings and recommendations, read the AI Diffusion Report.

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As Abu Dhabi and Dubai kick off a significant week hosting annual energy and technology conferences, we want to share details of our ongoing and planned investments in the United Arab Emirates. Roughly two and a half years ago, we embarked on a new AI initiative with the encouragement and support of both the United States and UAE governments. Much of this progress has involved a new partnership with G42, the UAE’s sovereign AI company, with whom we’re making critical progress.   

All told, Microsoft will invest $15.2 billion USD in the UAE between the start of this initiative in 2023 and the end of this decade, in 2029. This is not money raised in the UAE. It’s money we’re spending in the UAE. And as we do everywhere in the world, we’re focused not just on growing our business but also on contributing to the local economy. This involves bringing together three critical factors – technology, talent, and trust.   

On some days, it feels like the tech sector is gripped in a rhetorical race to announce ever larger, sky-high numbers. We believe in moving fast while staying grounded and being transparent about our investment details. And we want to share our strong conviction that our investments benefit the shareholders of our company, the people of the UAE, and the relationship between our two nations.   

Our investment numbers  

Our $15.2 billion USD investment includes the following:  

• Beginning in 2023 and through the end of this calendar year, Microsoft will have invested and spent just over $7.3 billion in the UAE. This includes our $1.5 billion equity investment in G42, more than $4.6 billion in capital expenses in advanced AI and cloud datacenters in the country, and more than $1.2 billion in local operating expenses and the cost of goods sold.   

• From the start of 2026 to the end of 2029, we will spend more than $7.9 billion in the UAE. This includes more than $5.5 billion in capital expenses for ongoing and planned expansion of our AI and cloud infrastructure, including new steps we will share publicly in Abu Dhabi this week. It also includes almost $2.4 billion in planned local operating expenses and the cost of goods sold.  

An investment in world-leading technology  

Some of our most important work involves exporting world-leading technology from the United States to the UAE. This includes the GPUs essential to power AI in our datacenters across the country that support the UAE’s people and institutions.  

Microsoft was one of the few companies during the previous administration to secure export licenses from the Commerce Department to ship GPUs to the UAE. In no small measure, this is because of the substantial work we did to meet the strong cybersecurity, national security, and other technology conditions required by these licenses. These licenses enabled us to accumulate in the country the equivalent of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs, based on a combination of A100, H100, and H200 chips.  

Microsoft was also the first company this year under the Trump administration to secure export licenses from the Commerce Department to ship GPUs to the UAE. Approved in September, these were based on updated and stringent technology safeguards. These licenses enable us to ship the equivalent of 60,400 additional A100 chips, in this instance involving Nvidia’s even more advanced GB300 GPUs.  

While the chips are powerful and the numbers are large, more important is their positive impact across the UAE. We’re using these GPUs to provide access to advanced AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source providers, and Microsoft itself. We’re supporting AI-enabled applications, including our Copilot applications, from a wide variety of local and international providers. And we’re partnering with G42 to support public and private sector organizations across the UAE economy, as well as consumers across the country.  

The UAE’s ranking in the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report published last week shows the country leading the world in per capita AI usage. With 59.4 percent of the population using generative AI, the UAE is ahead of Singapore, which is in second place at 58.6 percent. Beyond these two, no other country tops the 50 percent mark. Microsoft’s infrastructure challenge in the UAE is not a risk of getting ahead of demand but keeping pace with it.  

Investing in talent  

Microsoft’s investment in the UAE is not just about technology, it’s also about people. By cultivating AI talent and skilling individuals to develop, deploy, and use AI in a way that reflects the region’s unique needs, Microsoft is helping to ensure that the UAE remains on the leading edge of AI diffusion.  

Today, Microsoft’s presence in the UAE reflects this commitment. Our growing team includes almost 1,000 full-time employees and related staff representing 40 nationalities. Nearly 100 of our employees are engineers, supported by an Emirati partner ecosystem that has grown almost threefold in just two years, now with 1,400 firms employing nearly 45,000 professionals across the country.  

This year, we established the Global Engineering Development Center in Abu Dhabi to attract world-class tech talent to the UAE. Our engineers not only develop new products and services for Microsoft, but support institutions and businesses across the region so they can use AI and cloud technologies to transform their own operations. As we look to the future, we aspire to grow our engineering teams further and add a new focus on domain-specific AI models and applications that will propel advances in key scientific and technological fields.  

We also opened a new center for the Microsoft AI for Good Lab in Abu Dhabi, staffed by PhD level research talent specializing in large-scale AI models, vision-language models, and post training techniques. Backed by Azure compute grants allocated to partner organizations, this team collaborates with nonprofits, start-ups, researchers, academic institutions, and local businesses to address humanitarian challenges across the Middle East and Africa using AI. Already, the Lab has partnered with researchers to train large language models for low-resource languages, including those spoken in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – helping ensure that AI serves communities that risk being left behind in the AI age.    

As the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report underscores, people need digital proficiency to fully participate in an AI-driven economy. Without the right skills, AI risks deepening inequality rather than broadening opportunity. That’s why skilling is a core pillar of our investment in the UAE.   

Last November, we committed to skill one million people in the UAE by the end of 2027–and we’re well on our way to meet – and exceed–our goal. Last month at GITEX, Microsoft partnered with UAE government entities to launch an initiative to upskill 120,000 government employees across the federal government, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah. We will also skill 175,000 students and 39,000 teachers through collaborations with GEMS, Abu Dhabi Department of Education (ADEK), and the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). We will announce new steps in this area on Thursday in Dubai.  

Talent is the engine of AI leadership. Attracting, nurturing, and building AI talent and know-how is essential to the UAE turning its vision of becoming a global leader into a reality.   

Strengthening trust   

Ultimately, the use of AI depends on trust. People and institutions need to trust that AI will be developed and deployed with responsible safeguards. They need to have confidence that the cybersecurity of AI chips, models, and services will be protected. And they rightly expect AI to serve the public broadly, with cause for optimism that AI will reach and support the Global South.  

Given the role of export controls and other trade issues, the flow of advanced GPUs and AI models also requires trust between nations. This in turn requires clear rules and agreements, coupled with effective compliance systems. And as always, trust between nations depends on strong relationships between its people, grounded in mutual respect and appreciation for each other’s cultures.  

We’re focused on supporting all these needs.   

One important part of this is the Responsible AI Future Foundation, or RAIFF. G42, Microsoft, and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) founded this new foundation in Abu Dhabi in February to promote responsible AI standards and best practices in the Middle East and across the Global South. This foundation is advancing research on the technical and ethical elements of responsible AI and is developing frameworks to ensure ethical development and deployment of AI systems, accounting for cultural diversity.   

A second element comes to life through the first annual Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit, which began Sunday. Hosted by G42, Microsoft, the Responsible AI Future Foundation, and Eurasia Group’s GZERO Media, this Summit brings government ministers, private sector executives, and AI leaders together to discuss what’s needed to drive AI diffusion across the Global South. We meet at a time when there is a growing risk that uneven AI diffusion may widen the economic and societal gaps that divide the world. It’s imperative that governments, businesses, and non-governmental organizations collaborate and take new steps to promote broader access to AI.  

Both these elements build on a third and deeper initiative that Microsoft and G42 have advanced during the past two years. In conjunction with our $1.5 billion investment, Microsoft and G42 created last April a first–of–its–kind binding framework between two private companies. Developed in close consultation with the U.S. and UAE governments, this Intergovernmental Assurance Agreement (IGAA) ensures that both our companies meet or exceed U.S. standards in critical areas such as cybersecurity and physical security, export controls and technology transfer, data protection and responsible AI, and Know Your Customer (KYC) best practices.   

As we drafted the IGAA, we consulted not only leaders from government ministries in our two countries, but with members and staff of both political parties in both houses of Congress in Washington, D.C. We listened to feedback and adapted the IGAA to address their suggestions. And we’ve built a strong compliance infrastructure to implement these requirements based on industry best practices and auditing standards.   

All these steps help bolster mutual confidence and trust between our two governments. But trust between nations also grows through relationships among people. That’s why we’re advancing a fourth and new element this week, traveling to Abu Dhabi with a Seattle delegation of public and private leaders. The group includes a former Governor and local leaders in economic development, higher education, medical research, the non-profit community, and sports. The goal is to deepen understanding, exchange ideas, and explore solutions that can advance both regions.   

Looking to the future  

Microsoft is committed to the future of the UAE and a strong relationship between our two nations. We believe in the UAE’s long-term economic vision and the role the UAE and the U.S. continue to play together to support peace, stability, and growth across the Middle East.  

As we do everywhere we do business, Microsoft is committed to a broad perspective and long-term approach. Our work in the UAE has underscored the importance of connecting technology investments to initiatives to attract and develop the talent needed for a vibrant and self-sustaining tech ecosystem. And work to advance trust, which may seem peripheral to some, is in fact of central importance. From stronger business practices to broader international ties, trust is a critical catalyst for technology success at a local and global level.  

Technology is our business and we’re as excited as anyone by its potential. But we know that ultimately there is only one test that matters. It’s how our technology empowers others to achieve more. Like every public company, our shareholders rightly expect us to deliver value to customers in ways that enable us to continue to grow. But we also judge ourselves by whether we are generating local opportunities and growth that go well beyond ourselves. Across the UAE, we’re committed to passing this test.  

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