Microsoft has offered about 60,000 employees, roughly 27% of its global workforce, voluntary buyouts as it spends heavily on artificial intelligence. The offer is available to eligible employees in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, and Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said in a blog post that it is new for the company and that it will learn from it. Microsoft had about 223,000 full-time employees at the end of June, and its shares hit an all-time high this month before rising about 1% on Monday. Earlier, the company planned buyouts for about 8,750 people (7% of its U.S. workforce) in May and in July cut 4,800 jobs, about 2.1% of its global workforce, including many at its Xbox business. Data-centre investment, likely topping $700 billion this year, has pushed up the prices of memory chips, processors and electricity, and economists expect it to keep lifting inflation at least through the end of this year.
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Relevance: medium
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Systems Software |
| Market cap | $3.9T |
| Close on 10/23/2026 | 524.53 |
| Change that session | +0.66% |
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