Let’s switch things up... As we settled down for bed last night, my wife asked: “Is there an issue with Outlook?”

At about 8pm our time, Microsoft acknowledged online that people in the Americas couldn’t reach their Exchange Online mailboxes.

Soon afterwards, it conceded that users in any region could be affected. By Downdetector’s count, Outlook complaints peaked above 138,000 around then. At the time of Microsoft’s latest update, when I woke up this morning, the outage was still running.

The first theory was load. Microsoft said part of its infrastructure was straining, so it paused deployments, rerouted traffic and restarted servers. Then it corrected itself. Demand hadn’t surged. A number of servers had unexpectedly dropped out, and the survivors were buckling under the extra weight.

The second theory was the health check. Servers were failing automated tests and removing themselves from service, and Microsoft pointed to the component that processes server health. It found no recent change linked to the start of the trouble. A different health-check method brought a subset of servers back. A system built to tell healthy machines from sick ones may have been the thing that was sick.

Then came the false dawn. By evening in New York, which was about 1am here, Microsoft said restored servers were stable and users would see a gradual recovery as their clients reconnected. Reports had fallen to roughly 34,000.

A couple of hours later it admitted that the restored servers could go unresponsive again once traffic reached them. It began limiting some types of traffic in some locations and rebuilding a subset of servers on an earlier configuration. Its latest update says a change meant to improve serviceability hadn’t taken as expected, and engineers are looking for other ways to add capacity.

The blast radius is the real story: Copilot couldn’t reach work data. Defender’s Safe Links couldn’t verify URLs. Purview’s data-loss prevention, labelling and eDiscovery tools were hit, along with Intune enrolment, Graph API calls, Planner, To Do and Universal Print. Some Windows 365 Cloud PCs became unreachable. Even the document I use for the market table didn’t want to save...

Unfortunately, Teams calls largely held up, but calendars didn’t.

Files in SharePoint stayed accessible.

Reuters also reported that the outage hit connectors used by OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s AI services, and OpenAI said new connections to Microsoft connectors might be broken. So things may be broken this morning, be kind with yourself.

Lindsey

🇺🇸🛑 A growing consensus in the US Congress is pushing to strictly limit advanced AI chip exports to China following the sudden resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang’s departure, triggered by a scandal involving an alleged Chinese spy, has energised bipartisan lawmakers to advance multiple bills aimed at closing loopholes that allow Chinese AI firms to access American computing power.

📉🏛️ Wall Street is showing surprising resilience despite Nvidia erasing more than $2tn (R33.5tn) in market value in just over a month. While the broader AI tech sector wobbles under the weight of the leadership scandal and post-election regulatory fears, the S&P 500 remains near its all-time high as investors rapidly rotate capital into defensive, value-oriented sectors such as healthcare and consumer staples.

🇯🇵⚔️ Japan is preparing for deep cuts to expected defence orders as fiscal constraints threaten to scale back the country’s military buildup. The finance ministry has proposed spending between 50tn yen and 60tn yen (roughly R5.2tn–R6.25tn) over the next five years, which falls well short of both the ruling party’s targets and US demands for allies to spend 3.5% of GDP on their armed forces.

Life Healthcare

📉 Earnings distort: The hospital group noted that its earnings for the year ended 30 September 2026 will be significantly distorted compared to the prior year owing to a R2.4bn net gain from the disposal of Life Molecular Imaging in FY2025.

🏥 Normalised growth: When stripping out these non-trading items, the group expects its normalised earnings per share — which it says better reflects its core southern African business — to increase by 6%–11%.
📅 Results coming soon: Life Healthcare expects to release its full results on or about 26 November 2026.

SPONSORED CONTENT

The architecture of trust: Why South Africa’s AI accountability framework is fragmented, not failing

By ENS

A visit to a solar panel graveyard reveals new uses rising from waste

By Ed Stoddard

Wear and tear means they all need replacement at some point, but they are full of valuable materials that can be recycled and repurposed.

👉 Read more

Digital statecraft: US-China tech backbone battle for Africa comes to Cape Town

By Lindsey Schutters

On the eve of the Africa Tech Festival, the US Development Finance Corporation announced a massive capital investment into Africa’s digital arteries, setting up an interesting connectivity conversation.

👉 Read more

After The Bell: Woolies is the canary in the premiumisation middle-class coal mine

By Stephen Grootes

A sharp slowdown in Woolworths Foods sales has exposed the financial strain of the middle class, sending consumer shares lower and challenging premium grocery spending.

👉 Read more

Help us fund independent journalism to make sure that it remains free for all to read. Join The 32,000 Maverick Insiders who contribute monthly (or annually) to our membership community and you can rest assured of getting the latest reporting every day without a hitch.

Unsubscribe here or change your preferences