Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, a quarter

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In context: Microsoft's layoff surge, which has impacted tens of thousands of workers since 2023, accelerated earlier this year as the company focused on AI spending. Months after offering voluntary buyouts to a small percentage of its workforce, Microsoft has now expanded the practice to a scale that might dwarf prior layoff rounds from the past several years.

Microsoft recently announced a new voluntary exit offer for employees at level 70 and below in certain countries. Sources told CNBC that this group includes about 60,000 workers, a substantial increase in scope compared with the buyout offers that began in April.

The time-limited offer, which includes financial support and employment assistance services, is available to members of certain Microsoft organizations based in the US, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. The 60,000 eligible workers make up 27% of the 228,000 employees the company said it employed across the globe in June 2025.

In a blog post announcing the program, Microsoft said it is learning from the April offers, which it called a Voluntary Retirement Program – the first in its 51-year history. The buyouts follow numerous rounds of layoffs over the past few years.

While some of the eliminations came amid Microsoft's struggle to reorganize the Xbox division after acquiring Activision Blizzard, AI spending is likely the biggest factor behind the drive to offset costs. AI infrastructure spending helped push Microsoft's capital expenditures to nearly $35 billion in the September 2025 quarter and $50 billion in the same quarter of this year.

Microsoft layoffs since 2023

Date Reported headcount cut Main business areas hit 18 Jan 2023 10,000 Windows & devices, Xbox, HoloLens, recruiting & marketing 25 Jan 2024 1,900 Activision Blizzard, Xbox, ZeniMax after the ABK deal closed 3-4 Jun 2024 ≈1,000 (internal est.) Azure for Operators, HoloLens/mixed-reality, other "moonshot" teams 12 Sep 2024 ≈650 Xbox publishing & game-studio support teams Jan-Feb 2025 ≈2,000 Company-wide "low-performer" cull (no severance in many cases) 13 May 2025 ≈6,000 (Microsoft says "< 3% of staff") All geographies; focus on middle-management, LinkedIn 2 Jun 2025 305 Redmond, Washington HQ roles; additional WARN-notice layoffs following the May cuts 2 Jul 2025 ≈9,000 (Microsoft says "< 4% of staff") Company-wide; Xbox, sales, management layers, and other divisions 23 Apr 2026 (opens May) Up to ≈8,750 offered voluntary exit US employees at senior director level and below whose age plus tenure equals 70 or higher; certain sales staff excluded Fiscal Year 2027 (beginning July 6, 2026) ≈4,800 Largest reset in Xbox history, five game studios divested October 26, 2026 Up to ≈60,000 offered voluntary exit Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States employees at level 70 and below

While it remains unclear how many of the eligible employees will accept Microsoft's offer, another set of layoffs announced in July will eliminate 4,800 positions throughout fiscal year 2027. Before this week's announcements, Microsoft's total layoffs since 2023 were projected to exceed 40,000.

According to TrueUp, layoffs across the tech sector this year have nearly reached 200,000. Aside from Microsoft, the most heavily impacted companies include Amazon, Oracle, Meta, PayPal, and Dell. While not all the job losses are AI-related, Meta's are, as the company prepares to invest over $100 billion in the technology this year. TrueUp estimates that tech industry layoffs will reach approximately 370,000 before the end of the year, exceeding recent years but not quite matching 2023's record of 430,000.

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