Microsoft Offers Voluntary Buyouts to 60,000 Employees as Tech Giants Pivot to AI

Microsoft is offering voluntary exit packages to about 60,000 employees, which is roughly a quarter of its total workforce. The company announced this move on Monday as part of an effort to cut costs while investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Staff on select teams in the United States, Canada, India, and Britain at the vice president level and below are eligible for this buyout. However, certain groups of employees are excluded, including some who work on data centres, sales, and marketing.

Details and Context

Amy Coleman, an executive vice president and chief people officer, stated in a memo to employees that the voluntary exit offer creates greater flexibility and more ways for staff to shape their next chapter. This is the second voluntary buyout offer Microsoft has put forward this year, following an early retirement option offered to about seven percent of its US workforce in April. Around 30 percent of those eligible took that plan, according to CNBC. Microsoft had 223,000 employees globally at the end of June, down from 228,000 at the end of 2025. Major tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are collectively on track to pour roughly $700 billion into AI data centres, chips, and computing infrastructure this year alone.