Microsoft Names Rust a Tier 1 Language
Microsoft is paying to keep C and C++ alive as shared infrastructure while it pushes Rust into products, because Windows code and tooling built over decades on C and C++ cannot be swapped out at once.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
Victor Ciura, a principal engineer on Microsoft's Rust tooling team, says Rust now holds Tier 1 status inside Microsoft, the same standing as C++, C#, and TypeScript. The company's rustc_codegen_utc connects the Rust compiler's code generation to the MSVC backend, giving Rust access to Windows optimization, security, debugging, and failure analysis built for C and C++. It became ready for product development in early 2026.
Microsoft built a bridge rather than a replacement. The rustc_codegen_utc mechanism links the code generation half of the Rust compiler to the UTC backend of MSVC, Microsoft's C and C++ compiler, so Rust code can inherit optimization, security, debugging, and failure analysis that Windows developers have used for years.
That bridge is already carrying load. Microsoft says rustc_codegen_utc became ready for product development in early 2026 and is now used to build more than 100 internal project repositories. From Rust 1.90 onward, the Rust compiler itself can be built with it.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.