Microsoft, one of America's largest employers, has offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 of its employees — roughly a quarter of its global workforce of 223,000 — in a cost-cutting move the company says will help it keep funding its massive spending on artificial intelligence. Chief People Officer Amy Coleman announced the "Voluntary Exit Offer" in a memo to employees on Monday, saying it gives workers who may be considering a future outside the company "a new choice to make that transition now with support." It is the largest voluntary exit program Microsoft has ever run, and it reaches tens of thousands of workers in the United States, by far the biggest group affected.
The offer covers employees on participating teams in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, at level 70 and below on Microsoft's internal scale — a band that takes in general managers and some vice presidents, though not corporate vice presidents. The company says there is no age or tenure requirement and that job performance is not a factor in who qualifies. Whether a team takes part is left to its business leaders, Coleman wrote, because participation "varies based on each business's priorities, customer commitments, and workforce needs." Microsoft's sales organization is not taking part, and neither are some engineering groups and corporate functions; staff who build and run the company's data centres are also reported to be excluded, while groups said to be included range from Xbox and Windows to Copilot, finance and human resources.
For those who take it, the package is the same as Microsoft's standard severance, the company says: base pay calculated on years of service and level, continued vesting of stock, healthcare coverage for a fixed period and career transition services. It does not include the extended healthcare that made the company's earlier retirement offer this year so attractive. Eligible employees were told to expect the details by email on Monday, and they have until the first week of December to decide; those who accept are expected to leave at the end of the year. Microsoft has not disclosed what the program will cost or how many people it expects to take it, though it says it anticipates a much smaller share than the roughly 30 percent who accepted its spring retirement offer.
The company is stressing that this is an offer, not a layoff: nobody is being ordered out, and every eligible worker chooses for himself or herself. A Microsoft spokesperson described the program as one of several ways the company is adjusting to changing business needs, not a sign that it needs fewer employees. But Microsoft has also said plainly that the buyout is not a replacement for layoffs, which will remain part of its approach depending on business conditions — so workers who turn the offer down are doing so knowing further cuts remain possible.
The offer follows a year of steady reductions. In the spring Microsoft ran the first voluntary retirement program in its history, open to about 8,750 U.S. employees, and roughly 30 percent took it — an outcome Coleman later said reduced the size of the layoffs that followed. In July the company cut 4,800 jobs, about 2 percent of its global workforce, including thousands at its Xbox gaming business, and hundreds more positions went in September. Its headcount had already fallen to 223,000 by June 30, down from 228,000 a year earlier, after more than 15,000 jobs were cut in 2025.
Behind the pressure on payroll is the size of the AI bill. Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood told Wall Street analysts in July that Microsoft expects to spend about $175 billion on AI infrastructure, including data centres, in 2026 alone, and investors have been pressing the company to hold down operating costs while that spending climbs. Buyouts are still rare among the biggest technology firms, which have mostly relied on layoffs and stricter performance reviews to thin their ranks. Microsoft's offer lands two days before the company reports quarterly earnings on Wednesday, when it may reveal what the program is expected to cost — it disclosed a $900 million charge for the spring retirement program. For the tens of thousands of American workers now holding the offer, the choice is theirs to make by December: leave on their own terms with severance support, or stay and take their chances.
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