Microsoft Aims to Translate Its Codebase to Rust Using AI-Driven Tools

Microsoft is making significant strides toward rewriting its extensive codebase in Rust, a memory-safe programming language, with the goal of eliminating C and C++ from its systems by 2030. The tech giant is actively hiring engineers to develop tools that facilitate this large-scale transformation.

The Vision for Code Modernization

Galen Hunt, a distinguished engineer at Microsoft, announced on LinkedIn his ambitious objective:

“My goal is to eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030.”

He explained that the approach involves combining artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced algorithms to automate the rewriting process, aiming for a productivity benchmark of “1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code.”

Building the Tools for Transition

Hunt’s post highlighted a job opening for a Principal Software Engineer, responsible for developing and refining tools that enable the translation of large codebases to Rust. Microsoft has already developed infrastructure to support this effort:

Code Processing Infrastructure: Creates scalable graphs over source code.
AI Processing Infrastructure: Utilizes AI agents guided by algorithms to perform large-scale code modifications.

The engineer hired for this position will work within the Future of Scalable Software Engineering group, a team dedicated to reducing technical debt through innovative tools and techniques. Microsoft collaborates internally and with partners to deploy these capabilities organization-wide and even industry-wide.

The Advantages of Rust

Unlike C and C++, Rust offers memory safety through automated management, reducing vulnerabilities such as out-of-bounds reads or use-after-free errors. Governments and industry leaders increasingly advocate for adopting memory-safe languages like Rust to enhance security.

Microsoft’s support for Rust includes:

Recommending it as the default language for new cloud projects, as stated in 2022 by the CTO of Azure.
Developing tools that convert C code to Rust automatically.
Creating tools to help developers build Windows drivers in Rust.

Given the size of Microsoft’s product ecosystem—including over 500 active online portals and extensive internal IT infrastructure—the shift to Rust is a monumental task. Automation will help, but addressing edge cases will require significant manual effort.

Job Details and Industry Impact

The role offers a competitive salary between $139,900 and $274,800 per year, with a flexible work schedule requiring three days a week onsite in Redmond, Washington.

Clarification on the Scope of the Project

In a subsequent update, Hunt clarified that this initiative is not about rewriting Windows in Rust.

“Windows is NOT being rewritten in Rust with AI,” he emphasized.

He added:

“My team’s project is a research project. We are building tech to make migration from language to language possible. The intent of my post was to find like-minded engineers to join us on this multi-year endeavor—not to set a new strategy for Windows 11+ or to imply that Rust is an endpoint.”

This ongoing research aims to develop tools that could eventually make language migration easier, but the primary focus remains on innovation rather than immediate product overhaul.

Updated December 29, 06:00 UTC