News about cost cutting

In its second-quarter earnings call, Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli acknowledged the company had underinvested in service, responded too slowly to quality issues and launched products before they were ready, straining trust with customers and investors. Management plans to raise technician and customer-support staff by 35% by year-end and add more than 20% in mobile service capacity, targeting wait-time reductions of more than 30%. Lucid has also identified $1.4 billion in cash-flow savings, including roughly $600 million to $800 million from inventory reductions. The article compares this with Rivian, which reported scheduling wait times down 35% during 2025 and added more than 1,000 service specialists. The author argues that the ownership experience, not just vehicle technology, will determine whether Lucid can keep customers and win repeat buyers.

Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly a quarter of its global workforce, as it looks to cut costs while investing heavily in artificial intelligence. It is the first time the company has introduced a voluntary retirement program, available to employees in certain teams in the U.S., U.K., Canada and India; the memo does not give the number eligible, but news outlets reported around 60,000 out of roughly 223,000 workers globally. In July, Microsoft laid off 4,800 employees, saying those roles were not being replaced by AI. Its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue reached $90 billion and net income was $35.8 billion, beating analyst expectations. Microsoft 365 Copilot has more than 30 million paid users, but adoption is much smaller than Google's Gemini or OpenAI's ChatGPT.

A report says about 60,000 employees will receive buyout offers. The article gives no further details on terms or timing.