[Updated below with Microsoft confirmation and related announcements from Amazon, Google, and Code.org.]
Microsoft reportedly plans to quadruple its cybersecurity spending to $20 billion over a five-year period, according to a report out of a White House meeting this afternoon between President Joe Biden and U.S. corporate leaders including the CEOs of the nation’s largest tech companies.
Reuters reported that Microsoft will also “make available $150 million in technical services to help federal, state and local governments to help keep their security systems up to date.”
Security technology is also a growing business for the Redmond company, generating more than $10 billion in annual revenue, according to past Microsoft statements.
“The reality is most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, and the federal government can’t meet this challenge alone,” Biden said in his opening remarks to the group. “I’ve invited you all here today because you have the power and the capacity and the responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar on cybersecurity.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, and Apple CEO Tim Cook are among the tech executives who participated in the event.
Update, 2:45 p.m.: Nadella confirmed the increased spending following the meeting.
Thank you @POTUS for convening a critical conversation on cybersecurity. Microsoft will invest $20 billion to advance our security solutions over the next 5 years, $150 million to help US government agencies upgrade protections, and expand our cybersecurity training partnerships.
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) August 25, 2021
Google similarly announced that it will invest $10 billion over the next five years “to strengthen cybersecurity, including expanding zero-trust programs, helping secure the software supply chain, and enhancing open-source security,” in addition to training initiatives.
Amazon said it would publicly release cybersecurity training materials originally developed for its employees, and offer qualifying Amazon Web Services customers a free multi-factor authentication device.
Code.org, the national technology education non-profit based in Seattle, announced that it plans to teach cybersecurity concepts to more than 2 million K-12 students over the next three years, and launch a new instructional video series, “How Not to Get Hacked,” aiming to reach an additional 1 million students, for a total of 3 million overall.
Hadi Partovi, the Code.org CEO, agreed with a comment that Nadella made during the meeting, comparing cybersecurity initiatives to earlier efforts to create standards for seatbelts in cars. “But if none of the drivers took a course in basic safety skills, our roads could never, ever be safe,” Partovi added.
