Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Staff as AI Spending Hits $145 Billion

Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to roughly 60,000 employees — about 27% of its workforce — as the company keeps pouring billions into AI data centers.

Chief People Officer Amy Coleman announced the program in a note to employees on Monday, published on Microsoft's blog. Eligible staff include senior leaders, up to vice presidents. "This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support," Coleman wrote.

The scale is unusual. Microsoft employed about 223,000 people at the end of June, already down 5,000 from the same period a year earlier. If uptake matches the 3%-5% that other major tech companies have seen in similar programs, as a Microsoft spokesperson pointed to when asked, that implies somewhere between roughly 6,700 and 11,000 departures.

What does the deal actually pay?

Severance payments scale with tenure, and specific terms will vary by country under local labor laws, though the spokesperson said packages will be consistent with standard separation terms. In the U.S., that means:

• A minimum of eight weeks' pay
• Continued stock vesting
• Healthcare coverage
• Career transition services

There's a hard deadline. Employees in the U.S., UK, Canada and India must accept the offer between the first week of December and December 31.

Why now?

This is the second such program this year. In April, Microsoft offered its first-ever voluntary buyout to long-tenured employees, with Coleman saying at the time the company aimed to move faster and simplify operations. The pattern is straightforward: Microsoft is trimming payroll while it builds out AI infrastructure at record scale.

The company remains among the tech industry's top spenders on data centers. Its most recent quarterly report showed $41 billion in capital expenditures for the quarter ending in June, and management projects $145.3 billion in total spending for the 2026 fiscal year. That's roughly $650,000 per employee — a useful frame for why headcount is the variable getting cut.

The leadership shake-up behind the numbers

The buyouts land amid significant churn at the top. CEO Satya Nadella has made several leadership changes as he pushes to win the enterprise and cloud AI markets, and longtime executives keep leaving. Ryan Roslansky, an executive vice president who also served as LinkedIn CEO, recently announced his departure, as did Chief Communications Officer Frank X. Shaw. Earlier this year, gaming chief Phil Spencer and Rajesh Jha, executive vice president of experiences and devices, both retired.

The job cuts have been unevenly distributed. Microsoft cut about 4,800 jobs in July, following more than 15,000 layoffs in 2025. Most of the recent reductions centered on the struggling Xbox unit, which has dragged on overall financial performance.

Microsoft isn't alone. Google offered buyouts to select employees in June, and Amazon has cut jobs in divisions including its Stores unit after laying off roughly 30,000 workers between late 2025 and early this year.

For practitioners, the practical question is whether this signals forced layoffs down the road if voluntary uptake falls short. The company isn't saying. Investors will get a clearer read on Wednesday, when Microsoft reports first-quarter earnings. Its shares are up about 25% over the past six months.