Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 27% of global workforce amid AI spending surge

Microsoft has offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, or roughly 27% of its global workforce, as it increases spending on artificial intelligence, according to the company. The offer is available to eligible employees in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said in a blog post on Monday. Coleman wrote that the Voluntary Exit Offer is new for the company and that Microsoft will learn from it while helping staff focus on priority work, build new skills and find opportunities across the company. Microsoft had about 223,000 full-time employees at the end of June and reports quarterly results on Wednesday. Reuters reported the company seeks to contain costs and help fund its AI investments. Earlier, Microsoft planned buyouts for about 8,750 US staff in May and announced 4,800 job cuts in July. Microsoft shares rose about 1% on Monday.

Where accounts differ. Reuters, via Nikkei, frames the buyouts explicitly as a way to contain costs and fund AI investment, a motive the other outlets attribute only generally to AI spending, and the Toronto Star notes investor scrutiny of returns only implicitly.

Toronto StarNikkeiUnited News of Bangladesh (UNB)

Written by AI from these outlets' articles: facts they report, claims attributed, numbers checked against the sources. It may still contain errors; read the originals.