Satya Nadella

The FTC examined and then intensified its scrutiny of Microsoft's cloud, software licensing, AI, cybersecurity and certain bundling practices; in 2026, the agency increased requests for information from competitors.

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Authors, open-source developers and news organisations sued Microsoft, OpenAI or GitHub, alleging unauthorised use of protected works, news content or code to train and operate AI models. In September 2026, the Ninth Circuit upheld dismissal of certain DMCA claims in the GitHub Copilot litigation, while publishers' copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft remained active.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Microsoft announced approximately 9,000 job cuts in July 2025 and approximately 4,800 in July 2026, during a period of high expenditure on AI infrastructure and products.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Australia's ACCC sued Microsoft, alleging that millions of customers were misled about their subscription options following Copilot's integration and price increases; the UK's CMA also opened a case.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Direct responsibility

A pension fund sued Microsoft, Nadella and other executives, alleging that the market had been misled about Azure's slowdown, capacity constraints and AI infrastructure expenditure. Related actions followed.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Accused

The FTC attempted to block the approximately $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and subsequently pursued administrative proceedings.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Investments and agreements between Microsoft and OpenAI attracted competition regulators' attention concerning control, computing resources and market effects.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Following complaints about the bundling of Teams with Microsoft 365/Office 365, Microsoft proposed commitments concerning unbundling, interoperability and portability.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Employees protested against Microsoft's services to Israeli organisations. Microsoft initially said it had found no evidence of use to target or harm people, but in September 2025 said it had identified evidence supporting certain media reports and disabled specific services for a unit of Israel's Ministry of Defence.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Following an intrusion by a China-linked group, the Cyber Safety Review Board concluded that the incident was preventable, describing a cascade of failures and an inadequate security culture at Microsoft.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Microsoft disclosed that a Russia-linked group had accessed executives' emails and subsequently attempted to exploit that information to access source code repositories.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Windows Recall, a feature that periodically records on-screen activity, raised concerns about sensitive data and security; Microsoft delayed its general launch.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

CISPE accused Microsoft of using its licensing to disadvantage rival cloud providers. In July 2024, the parties reached an agreement involving technical and financial commitments.

State of the evidence

Settlement

Attribution

Direct responsibility

After OpenAI's board abruptly removed Sam Altman, Microsoft, its principal partner and investor, received very little advance notice. Nadella initially announced that Altman and Greg Brockman would join Microsoft to lead a new AI team, then supported Altman's return to OpenAI and called for governance changes to prevent further strategic decisions being taken without coordination with Microsoft.

State of the evidence

Documented

Microsoft won the Pentagon's JEDI contract, worth up to $10 billion, which Amazon challenged, citing in particular Donald Trump's political influence. The Pentagon cancelled it in 2021.

State of the evidence

Documented

Female employees alleged systemic discrimination; documents revealed 238 internal complaints of discrimination or harassment between 2010 and 2016.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Microsoft won a contract potentially worth $480 million for augmented reality systems intended for the military; employees asked Nadella to cancel it over fears of lethal uses.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

The Tay chatbot published racist, sexist and offensive content following coordinated manipulation by users, before being withdrawn.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Nadella initially advised women not necessarily to ask for a pay rise but to trust the system and 'karma', provoking strong controversy.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated