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60,000 Microsoft employees offered voluntary buyouts as AI buildout costs bite — program covers roughly 27% of workforce across US, Canada, India, and the UK 27% of the company's total 223,000-strong workforce is affected just months after Microsoft's last, and first, voluntary retirement program. Microsoft has offered voluntary buyouts to around 60,000 employees across the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. The employees, who must have an experience level of 70 or below, make up around 27% of the company's total workforce of 223,000 people, a CNBC report notes. This move comes hot on the heels of a similar move in April when the company announced its first-ever voluntary retirement program. That program was open to around 7% of the company's U.S.-based workforce, but it pales in comparison to this latest move. That time around, more than 30% of those eligible for the program took advantage of it. The "Voluntary Exit Offer" was announced via a post on the Microsoft blog, penned by Amy Coleman, Microsoft's executive vice president in charge of people. "The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we’re evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter," Coleman explained, going on to say that the move "builds on what we learned" following the retirement program that was launched earlier in the year. Operationally, Coleman added that those who are eligible for the new program will receive an email with all of the relevant details today. While the blog post points out that the Voluntary Exit Offer is a time-limited, voluntary program, the fact that it comes so soon after April's retirement program is notable. Companies run programs like this when they are looking for ways to slash their wage bills, something that Microsoft knows all about. The company is in the midst of an Xbox "reset" that includes a plan to cut 3,200 jobs by the end of the year. The company has also seen some studios close, with others merging and yet more being cut adrift to pursue life as independents. As for why Microsoft has chosen now to make cuts, all fingers point to its ongoing AI data center plans. Last year, it announced plans to open the "world's most powerful" AI data center. Fairwater, in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, is now operational, with Microsoft lauding its closed-loop cooling system amid ongoing concern over the impact of data centers on local communities. Since 2023, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta have spent more than $1 trillion on AI infrastructure. AI data center investment is expected to skyrocket to $32 trillion by 2050, with Microsoft among those spending big. All of this money has to come from somewhere. For Microsoft, at least some of that looks set to come from global salaries. It's unlikely this will be the last cost-cutting measure put forth by Microsoft execs, with Coleman adding that this voluntary exit program is just one "of the ways we’re trying to meet different business needs while continuing to create opportunities for our own people to grow and contribute." Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Oliver Haslam has written about technology of all shapes and sizes for over 15 years, both online and in print. He's fascinated by how personal computing continues to change as tower PCs give way to foldable phones and beyond. - thesyndrome "The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we’re evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter," Coleman explained So when you go to business school, is there an entire course about 'using buzzwords to try to placate people whilst actually saying nothing of value"? Reply - rgd1101 all of them over hired during covid. https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/msft/employees/According to official filings, Microsoft’s employee count rose from 163,000 in 2020 to 221,000 in 2022, a 35% increase over two years 223,000 employees as of June 2026 more doesn't mean better. how many issues with windows 11 update? Reply - hotaru251 rgd1101 said:more doesn't mean better. how many issues with windows 11 update?funny... because that is ACTUALLY the problem. they have LESS people on making updates as they have publicly stated (a yr ago so its likely much higher now) 30% of all MS code is ai coded. so more WOULD be better in this case. Reply - rgd1101 if they have more people and doing less making update. what are they doing? or in the rush of hiring, they hiring wrong or better off say more competent people will take the offer and go find a better place Reply - Narfhead thesyndrome said:So when you go to business school, is there an entire course about 'using buzzwords to try to placate people whilst actually saying nothing of value"?The fact that you find what is said to be "nothing of value" is less a statement about the statement you are judging and more a statement about yourself. Reply - redgarl "As for why Microsoft has chosen now to make cuts, all fingers point to its ongoing AI data center plans. ""All of this money has to come from somewhere." This is so funny to see the obvious BIAS from the writer that it is laughable that this is even called JOURNALISM. I see the other way around. MS knows that their AI venture is going to save them thousands of jobs for their software enterprise and their video game division. MS is one of the biggest company on the planet, if you think they are going to fall because of their venture, you are mistaking. Same with Google, same with Amazon, same with Anthropic, same with OpenAI. People don't understand that the biggest players are also the biggest companies on the planet. This Doom and Gloom played out really well for the last 10 years I was waiting for a recession that never came. I am so tired of this, you guys are just noise at this point and the people are so manipulable and gullible, that it is ridiculous... and article like this are just feeding the machine. Well thanks, but no thanks... garbage in, garbage out... Reply - redgarl rgd1101 said:all of them over hired during covid. https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/msft/employees/According to official filings, Microsoft’s employee count rose from 163,000 in 2020 to 221,000 in 2022, a 35% increase over two years 223,000 employees as of June 2026 more doesn't mean better. how many issues with windows 11 update?How many issues did they fix in the last couple of mounts? Isn't the latest patch the biggest ever released by microsoft in term of fixes? If you had the same amount of personnel for the last 5 years and this is happening just now, we know it is because of AI. If they get rid of people, it is because they know they don't need them... that's it... not because they are broke because of their datacenter cost like the author blatantly and grossly allege. Reply - redgarl hotaru251 said:funny... because that is ACTUALLY the problem. they have LESS people on making updates as they have publicly stated (a yr ago so its likely much higher now) 30% of all MS code is ai coded. so more WOULD be better in this case.If that was the case, MS would not have patched 3 times more issues in comparison from previous years. Make no sense... and even if they have some issue when releasing the patches, it is still better than what they were doing in the past. AI is just going to get better over time, and it is just starting. Reply - saunupe1911 MS is nowhere near broke. They are rolling in profits from companies licensing CoPilot, Teams, etc. But they are pieces of shit for these layoffs. As a software engineer I will never work for a large tech company. At least they are getting packages though. To all those employees please take a mental break and then start self training because this job market is insanely competitive.Reply - hotaru251 redgarl said:If that was the case, MS would not have patched 3 times more issues in comparison from previous years.quantity doesnt = quality. MS themselves are reason they need to do more fixes as their "update" broke something. and that happened more and more as time went on and them stating they were letting ai do 30% of code made it clear why. They rather push quantity over quality...and now you have microslop and now they want to improve because its gotten so bad. Reply
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