Rust Becomes a Tier-1 Language at Microsoft
Rust Is Tier-1 Language at Microsoft
Microsoft has elevated Rust to Tier-1 status for internal development, placing it alongside C++, C#, and TypeScript. The company is investing in rustc_codegen_utc, a new compiler backend that connects Rust to the MSVC toolchain, enabling seamless interop with C++ and a unified code generation platform on Windows. Over 100 Microsoft repositories already build with it, and it has been production-ready since early 2026.
Today, Rust sits among C++, C#, and TypeScript as one of the best-supported languages for internal development at Microsoft.
- gregw2
Those interested in this may find the following articles of interest:
Microsoft goals [edit: err, Microsoft hiring manager vision-casting goal ] to convert 1 billion lines of code to rust by 2030 via automated tooling enabling "1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code":
https://thenewstack.io/microsofts-bold-goal-replace-1b-lines...
DARPA work towards automating converting C code to Rust using a mix of 6 different teams using different approaches:
https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/translating-all-c-to...
Feb 2026 Progress report:
https://github.com/DARPA-TRACTOR-Program/Reports/blob/main/F...
- i2talics
I hope announcements like this show that Rust is not a fledgling little language that moves fast and breaks things anymore. It's a mature, serious competitor to well established languages like C++ and C#. This is particularly important when trying to compare the experience of using Rust to other languages in the "better C/C++" space like Zig and Odin -- these are much newer and have more rough edges than Rust.
- pjmlp
This is very big news, all major OS vendors that also have a role in C and C++ language tooling, now have diversified their options in systems programming languages for greenfield development.
Additionally we finally get some public news about the MSVC integration rumors regarding Rust.
- devy
This makes strategic sense in multiple ways:
1. Rust's memory safety design will help Microsoft improve a gigantic portfolios of products that have been known to have lots of CVEs and 70% of them are memory safety issues, according to Azure CTO Mark Russinovich's talk at RustCon last year.[1]
2. Windows 11's forceful push to retire millions of legacy PC hardware by putting Windows 10 EOL last October was absurd for millions of consumers and businesses. I was literrally helping a S&B having to replace the entire fleet of working PCs simply because Windows 10 of EOL and Windows 11 refused to run on those legacy hardware. Quite honestly those PCs ran just fine! That's why some has been migrated to Linux, in particular to Google's ChromeOS Flex.[2]
3. RAM shortage due to AI boom exhausted the memory chip manufacturers' production pipepline for at least the next 5 years. This means the mainstream PCs sold today will actually have a diminishing RAM size configurations than last year's in order for the PC manufacturers to not drastically raise the product price (or raise prices drastically for high RAM configurations like Apple does). This requires the Windows 11 operating system to be more conservative about RAM usage, Rust can be a part of that.
- pornel
The big news here is they've replaced LLVM with MSVC's backend.
- bryanlarsen
This is from rustconf. A lot of the focus at Rustconf this year has been C++ interop, Python Interop, Javascript interop -- it's no longer about "rewrite it in rust", it's about being part of the ecosystem.
- abbefaria27
What’s the story for Rust-C++ interoperability these days? That’s what kills adoption. Most C++ devs I know like the idea of Rust, but no one is going to go rewrite 30 years of working code. It needs to be something you can incorporate gradually.
- petilon
If it is a tier-1 language why isn't it supported in Visual Studio?
- ComputerGuru
So when will we get tier 1 debugging support in Visual Studio?
- meerita
Good news they adopted Rust as Tier-1 language. I hope their Weather app stop consuming more than 1GB RAM https://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-11-s-built-in-Weather-...