GitHub powering up four million extra cores to stop its service going down
GitHub is adding four million CPU cores and 160 petabytes of high-speed storage as it rebuilds its infrastructure to handle a surge in AI-generated code and avoid further outages. The changes matter because the service’s reliability has suffered as developers use AI agents to produce and commit far more code.
GitHub recorded 7.4 billion commits in September 2026, five times the total from a year earlier. The company says it is separating compute from storage to enable 35 times more throughput and moving to a multi-region Azure deployment, due to be completed early next year; it is also adding capacity for GitHub Actions.
In short
- GitHub plans four million extra CPU cores and 160 petabytes of storage.
- September commits reached 7.4 billion, five times the year-earlier level.
- A new architecture aims to deliver 35 times more throughput.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
GitHub’s investment could be seen as a necessary response to a sharp rise in code and developer activity, with outages disrupting work across software teams. More compute, storage and regional capacity may improve reliability and give developers room to use AI tools without overloading the service.
The case against
A rapid expansion of infrastructure may be costly and could encourage expectations of ever-growing capacity without addressing why AI-generated activity is increasing so quickly. Critics may argue that GitHub should first improve efficiency, manage demand or set clearer limits, especially if the added capacity does not prevent outages.
Explained simply
GitHub is a service where people store and work on software code, often collaborating with colleagues and tracking each change, known as a commit. Many developers now use AI tools to generate code, which can increase the volume of changes they need to save and process.
The service is owned by Microsoft and runs on its Azure cloud platform. GitHub’s infrastructure—the computing power and storage behind the service—supports both code repositories and GitHub Actions, which automatically builds and checks software.
Reliable access matters to developers and organisations that use GitHub to manage their work. A sharp rise in activity can put pressure on that infrastructure, while outages can interrupt access to code and automated development tasks.
AI Business Markets Technology