Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly one-quarter of its global workforce, as it increases investment in AI. The offer covers eligible staff in Canada, India, the UK and the US at vice president level or below, while workers in data center and sales and marketing roles are ineligible. It is the company's second voluntary buyout this year, following a May plan for about 8,750 U.S. staff and a July cut of 4,800 jobs. Microsoft expects to spend $175 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone, while its headcount fell from 228,000 at the end of 2025 to 223,000 at the end of June.
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MSFT
▲ Likely positiveMicrosoft
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% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of its workforce, as it cuts costs while investing heavily in AI. Eligible staff are vice president level and below on select teams in the US, Canada, India and Britain, while groups including some data center, sales and marketing employees are excluded. This is the second voluntary offer this year; in April, Microsoft reportedly offered about 7% of its US workforce early retirement, and around 30% of those eligible took it, according to CNBC. Headcount fell from 228,000 at the end of 2025 to 223,000 at the end of June, per regulatory filings, and about 27% of the workforce is eligible for the new offer. The move comes amid tech layoffs at Meta, Amazon, Uber and others, and the company is expected to report quarterly earnings this week.
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