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Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
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Microsoft has opened a voluntary exit plan for staff in four countries, including the United States and India. Roughly 60,000 people can sign up, about 27% of the workforce, on terms similar to its standard severance. Those who say yes will exit on December 31, in the middle of a race to invest in data centers for AI.
On Monday, October 26, Microsoft opened a voluntary buyout program for part of its workforce in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. According to CNBC, citing a person familiar with the plan, roughly 60,000 people are eligible, about 27% of its 223,000 employees. The company confirmed the figure to TechCrunch.
The offer, which Microsoft chief people officer Amy Coleman explained in a note to staff, reaches employees at vice president level and below on some teams. According to TechCrunch, citing Bloomberg, divisions such as Xbox, Windows, Copilot and Finance are taking part, while employees in data centers, sales and marketing, among others, are left out. Its terms will resemble Microsoft's standard severance package. Those who accept have to make up their minds in early December and will leave the company on December 31, according to CNBC.
According to CNBC, Microsoft is trying to balance its costly AI infrastructure spending with capital efficiency. In July the company said capital expenditure for the September quarter would exceed $50 billion, against $34.9 billion in capital spending and finance leases in that quarter one year earlier. In April it had offered voluntary retirement for the first time to part of its US workforce: according to TechCrunch, more than 30% of the roughly 8,750 eligible employees accepted. That program reached up to senior director level; the new one goes up to vice president. In July, Microsoft also announced 4,800 layoffs.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
Going the voluntary route has a clear reading: the data center bill is being paid, in part, with staff. Microsoft avoids the image of a mass layoff and lets each employee decide, but the message to the market matches that of its earlier cuts: the money goes to AI infrastructure and the rest of the house has to get leaner. That the plan now reaches senior managers, and not only those close to retirement, shows the reorganization is serious. It remains to be seen how many people accept and which teams are left most depleted. Companies that work with Microsoft products would do well to watch whether their contacts change in the coming months.
Source: CNBC · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
