Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of its workforce, as it seeks to cut costs while investing heavily in AI. Eligible staff are at vice president level and below on select teams in the US, Canada, India and Britain, though some groups, including certain data center, sales and marketing staff, are excluded. This is the company's second voluntary buyout this year; in April it reportedly offered about seven percent of its US workforce early retirement, and around 30 percent of those eligible took it, according to CNBC. Microsoft had 223,000 employees at the end of June, down from 228,000 at the end of 2025, and about 27 percent of its workforce is eligible for the new offer. The company is expected to report quarterly earnings later this week.
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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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