GitHub Suffers 12+ Hour-Long Outages Since March as AI Coding Boom Erodes Microsoft Edge
Updated
Updated · CNBC · May 22
GitHub Suffers 12+ Hour-Long Outages Since March as AI Coding Boom Erodes Microsoft Edge
1 articles · Updated · CNBC · May 22
More than a dozen GitHub incidents lasting over an hour since March have left the platform below its own availability standards, undermining a key Microsoft asset just as AI-assisted coding demand surges.
12.5% of GitHub traffic was routed through Microsoft Azure’s Iowa region in March, but migration has lagged as GitHub ran short of space in legacy infrastructure and capacity negotiations slowed a broader Azure shift.
3,800 internal code libraries were exposed in a Wednesday security incident tied to a compromised employee device, adding to customer frustration that already pushed some companies to evaluate GitLab, Atlassian and other alternatives.
180 million developers use GitHub, yet rivals are gaining ground: Cursor has led Copilot in Ramp market-share data for about a year, while a March survey of 636 software professionals showed Copilot trailing Claude Code and Google’s Gemini Code Assist.
13% shares decline this year for Microsoft highlights the broader stakes for Satya Nadella, whose AI push now faces reliability problems, leadership turnover at GitHub and a June Copilot pricing change that could drive further defections.
As rivals surge and outages mount, is GitHub jeopardizing Microsoft's entire AI strategy?
Can legacy platforms truly adapt, or is the future of coding built by AI-native challengers?
GitHub Outages Escalate: MTTR Rises and User Trust Erodes During 2025–2026 Reliability Crisis
Overview
Between May 2025 and April 2026, GitHub faced a major decline in reliability, with frequent outages and service disruptions affecting a large number of users. The crisis began with a significant incident on May 1, 2025, when a new feature caused widespread issues, leaving 130,000 users unable to upload attachments for 45 minutes. As these problems grew, GitHub’s leadership shifted focus from new features to fixing reliability. This period highlighted deep architectural challenges and scaling pressures, leading to a loss of user trust and prompting many developers and organizations to consider alternative platforms.