Microsoft Voluntary Exit Offer Goes to 60,000 Employees

Microsoft has offered 60,000 employees, about 27% of its global workforce, voluntary buyouts while it spends heavily on AI. The Microsoft voluntary exit offer covers eligible staff in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, Chief People Officer Amy Coleman wrote in a blog post on Monday. Microsoft had about 223,000 full-time employees at the end of June.

Amy Coleman said the exit offer is new for Microsoft and that the company will learn from it, while it keeps helping staff build skills and find other roles where that makes sense. Microsoft shares hit an all-time high this month and rose about 1% on Monday. This is not the first round of reductions. In May, Microsoft planned buyouts for about 8,750 people, 7% of its US workforce, according to two unnamed people familiar with the plan. In July, it said it was cutting 4,800 jobs, about 2.1% of its global workforce, including many at Xbox.

An offer is not an exit. The 60,000 figure counts people offered buyouts, not people who left, and the source doesn’t say how many accepted. The Microsoft voluntary exit offer lands as AI spending reshapes the industry’s costs. Data centre investment is likely to top $700 billion this year, and it has made memory chips, processors and electricity more expensive. Economists expect that to push inflation up through at least the end of the year. The offer sits alongside the July cuts as another way of trimming headcount while AI spending climbs.

Microsoft reports quarterly results on Wednesday, a chance to hear how it frames the Microsoft voluntary exit offer and its AI spending. Watch how many staff take the offer, what it costs, and whether more cuts follow.