Microsoft to Offer Voluntary Buyouts to About 60,000 Employees
Microsoft will extend voluntary buyout offers to roughly 60,000 staff members in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom as part of a cost-cutting initiative aimed at reshaping its workforce for the AI era.
Microsoft announced that it will make voluntary buyout offers to about 60,000 employees at the vice-president level and below in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. The program, which applies to divisions including Xbox, Windows, Copilot and finance, excludes certain groups such as data-centre staff, sales, marketing, cybersecurity and quantum-computing teams, according to sources familiar with the terms.
"This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support," chief people officer Amy Coleman wrote in an internal memo dated Oct. 26.
Eligible workers will receive benefits comparable to a standard severance package. Microsoft expects fewer acceptances than its July voluntary retirement program, which saw more than 30% of roughly 8,750 eligible retirees take the offer.
The company’s headcount stood at 223,000 at the end of June, a level that has remained largely unchanged since 2022 when Microsoft increased spending on artificial-intelligence and data-centre projects. Similar workforce-right-sizing moves have been reported at other large tech firms, including voluntary buyouts at Google and a reduction of more than 20,000 jobs at Meta since late 2022.
Microsoft said the buyout option provides units with another way to align staffing levels with evolving business needs, and the firm may seek to retain top talent who choose to participate in the program.