Microsoft sets an ambitious target to remove C and C++ by 2030
Microsoft has announced a company-wide effort to replace its C and C++ code with Rust, with a stated objective of eliminating every line of C and C++ by 2030. The initiative, outlined by distinguished engineer Galen Hunt in a LinkedIn post, combines AI-driven agents and algorithmic tooling to perform large-scale translations of existing codebases, guided by a productivity target Hunt framed as “1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code.”
The work will be coordinated out of Microsoft’s Future of Scalable Software Engineering group, which aims to build infrastructure to reduce technical debt at scale. The group is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to help evolve the translation tooling; the job posting is available on Microsoft’s careers site and lists a salary range of $139,900–$274,800 and a hybrid requirement of three days a week in the Redmond office.
Tooling and approach
Microsoft describes a multi-layered infrastructure supporting the migration:
- a code-processing infrastructure that builds a scalable graph over source at scale,
- an algorithmic layer for guiding transformations,
- and an AI processing layer that applies agents to make code modifications.
Those elements are intended to work together to automate and scale translations from legacy C and C++ into Rust. The company has previously published tooling and research related to C-to-Rust conversion and has incubated Rust support for Windows drivers, providing a technical foundation for this larger effort. Links to those initiatives include Microsoft’s C-to-Rust research and Rust driver tooling.
Why Rust
The move reflects an ongoing industry and government emphasis on memory-safe languages. Unlike C and C++, Rust provides memory safety guarantees that reduce risks such as out-of-bounds accesses and use-after-free vulnerabilities — classes of bugs frequently exploited in real-world attacks. Governments and security bodies have increasingly promoted adoption of memory-safe languages, and Microsoft has advocated for Rust in new projects in recent years.
Scope and challenges
Microsoft’s product and internal-service footprint is extensive; tools that catalog Microsoft portals list hundreds of active management interfaces, and the company’s internal IT estate is sizable. Translating that volume of existing C and C++ code will surface complex edge cases and integration challenges that may resist full automation. Microsoft’s stated strategy is to pioneer tools internally, collaborate with product teams, and then deploy capabilities across the company and, potentially, the industry.
The principal-engineer role is positioned to help scale these capabilities and to work with internal partners to operationalize the translations. The job ad and Hunt’s LinkedIn post provide additional detail on the role and the long-term goal.
Original source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/24/microsoft_rust_codebase_migration/?