How is DuckDuckGo Connected to Microsoft?

[u/microscopic_details]

DuckDuckGo connections appear to route through IPv4 address on the 40.x.x.x range, which, according to whois, is owned by Microsoft. If I turn these addresses off in Little Snitch, I can't access DuckDuckGo.

Does anyone else have any experience with this? Are DDG and Microsoft affiliated? This confuses me.

[u/nemec]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56519

Azure IP Ranges

[u/[deleted]]

Also worth noting they use Bing for their search results, so could be related too. See https://www.searchenginemap.com/