Microsoft offers 60,000 workers buyouts as AI costs rise

Microsoft will offer buyouts to about 60,000 employees, according to a Monday staff note cited in a Financial Post article published Oct. 27.

The voluntary exit program covers roughly a quarter of Microsoft’s workforce, compared with 223,000 employees at the end of June, as investors prepare for Wednesday’s financial results.

Eligible workers include some employees at vice president level and below in the U.S., Canada, India and the U.K., the Financial Post reported, citing a Microsoft spokesperson. A buyout is a voluntary departure package used to reduce staff without an immediate layoff.

“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 said in the Monday note quoted by the Financial Post.

Workers who accept would receive benefits similar to a standard severance package, the spokesperson told the publication. Microsoft expects fewer employees to take the latest offer than accepted its July voluntary retirement program, when more than 30% of about 8,750 eligible workers did so, the spokesperson said.

AI spending pressure

The Financial Post reported that Xbox, Windows, Copilot and finance units are fully included in the program, citing people familiar with the terms. It also reported that some staff in data centres, sales, marketing, cybersecurity and quantum computing are not eligible. Microsoft declined to comment to the publication on those unit-level details.

The offer follows multiple rounds of job reductions at Microsoft in recent years. The Financial Post said the company has shed tens of thousands of workers while keeping overall headcount broadly flat since 2022.

The report linked the staffing push to Microsoft’s larger investment in artificial intelligence and data centres, which has tightened budgets and hiring elsewhere in the company. Microsoft is the world’s largest software maker, and its AI buildout has become a central question for investors weighing growth against rising infrastructure costs.

Other large technology companies have also used workforce reductions or voluntary exits while shifting more spending toward AI infrastructure. The Financial Post cited CNBC as reporting that Google offered voluntary buyouts in several units last year. It also said Meta Platforms Inc.’s headcount is down by more than 20,000 from a late-2022 peak.

Microsoft shares rose about 1% at midday in New York, according to the Financial Post. The report did not give a share price or valuation change.

The Microsoft spokesperson said the company wants employees engaged with the difficult problems it is trying to solve, according to the article. Coleman wrote that the buyouts give Microsoft units “another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs,” the memo said.

Wednesday earnings checks

On Wednesday, investors will be watching Microsoft’s financial results for signs that AI spending is paying off, according to the Financial Post. The checkable items include whether the results show progress tied to AI investment and whether management comments on spending pressure from data centres.

The same earnings release may also give investors a clearer view of how cost controls fit with Microsoft’s AI infrastructure plans. The source did not give analyst estimates, margin targets or a capital-spending threshold for the Wednesday report.

In some cases, Microsoft will try to keep top performers who choose the buyout, the spokesperson told the Financial Post. That leaves the final staff impact dependent on employee acceptance rates and any retention decisions after the offer is made.

Source: Financial Post article, Oct. 27, 2026.