Microsoft offers buyouts to up to 60,000 staff as AI costs climb (opens the source in a new tab)
- Staff at vice-president level or below in some divisions in the US, Canada, UK and India can apply for severance, per a memo from people chief Amy Coleman. Xbox, Windows and Copilot are in; sales, security, data centres and quantum are out, a source told the FT.
- Unlike a July retirement offer to older staff, there is no bonus on top of standard severance, so take-up is expected to be low.
- Microsoft plans up to $175bn of AI infrastructure spending this year and free cash flow has fallen; a source says the offer reflects fast-changing work, not Capex Capital expenditure: money a company spends on long-lived things like buildings, chips and data centres..
- 60,000
- staff offered buyouts
- $175bn
- AI capex this year
Why it matters This is a quieter way to reshape a workforce than layoffs, and it lets AI spending set the size of the rest of the company. Staff in India are in scope.
Other side Voluntary exits keep goodwill and let people who already want out leave on their own terms. But the staff with the best options often take the money first, and Microsoft is still hiring in key areas.