Why Big Tech is Betting on Rust

You’ve probably heard the buzz around Rust, it has been showing up everywhere – Android, Windows, cloud services, and even embedded devices. It’s not hype: the language really does solve some of the biggest pain points developers have struggled with for decades. Let’s talk about three of its biggest strengths: memory safety, performance, and its infamous picky compiler.

Memory Safety

Google shared that in 2019, 76% of security bugs in Android were caused by memory safety issues in C and C++ code. Buffer overflows, use-after-free errors, and dangling pointers – the kinds of bugs that are not only frustrating to fix but also open massive security risks.

Rust’s ownership and borrowing model makes sure memory mistakes never slip through. By enforcing strict rules at compile time, it prevents problems before your code even runs. It’s the classic case of prevention being better than cure: when required you still get the low-level control you’d expect from C or C++, but without the constant worry of leaks or unsafe access. In practice, that means safer, more reliable programs right from the start. 

Performance

When people talk about Rust’s performance, it comes down to how it handles memory and zero-cost abstractions. Memory first. Most modern languages rely on heap allocation and garbage collection, similar to a restaurant with diners leaving dirty plates on the table until a busser comes around to clean up. That step consumes CPU cycles and can cause unpredictable pauses in your program’s execution. Rust takes a clean-as-you-go (CLAYGO) approach, with an ownership and borrowing system. The moment a variable goes out of scope, Rust frees the memory the moment. 

The result is more than just the absence of pauses. Rust’s memory management is deterministic, freeing resources at precise points, which makes performance predictable and cache-friendly. At the same time, it still gives developers fine-grained control over memory layout and allocation strategies when needed, while keeping safety guarantees in place.

The other important aspect of Rust performance are zero-cost abstractions. Libraries and helper functions are common programming techniques to allow for code sharing and reuse, but they typically come at a cost: runtime overhead. Not so in Rust. The trait concept allows programming generic code that does not require a specific data type without incurring additional overhead at runtime. Truly the best of both worlds!

Picky Compiler

Rust is famous for its picky compiler, and for good reason. It won’t let your code run until every rule is followed and every potential issue is resolved. This can feel frustrating at first, like the compiler is being overly strict about everything. But that strictness is exactly what saves you from the headaches later. 

By catching mistakes before your program even runs, Rust cuts down the debugging time and prevents incomplete code from ever entering production. It’s tough love: the compiler might slow you down at first, but once your code compiles, you can trust it’s already passed a serious safety check. 

Industry Adoption

Since being invented by Mozilla in 2012, Rust has come a long way and has been attracting serious industry backing. In 2024, Google invested in Rust Foundation to improve Rust and C++ interoperability. This allows Rust and C++ work seamlessly together and promotes gradual adaptation without rewriting massive codebases. 

It’s clear why: memory safety and performance without compromise are too valuable to ignore. With support from tech giants and adoption across different platforms, Rust is steadily becoming part of the modern software toolkit.