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Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts as AI leads to efficiency push
CNBC • • general
Key Points:
- Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees at experience level 70 or below across the U.S., Canada, India, and the UK, representing roughly 27% of its 223,000 workforce.
- The move aims to balance the company's costly AI infrastructure investments with capital efficiency amid increased spending on data centers for AI computing demand.
- This new buyout offer follows earlier workforce reductions, including a voluntary retirement program in April and a planned layoff of 4,800 employees announced in July.
- Employees must decide by December whether to accept the buyout, with departures effective December 31; some marketing, sales, and engineering teams have opted out of participation.
- Despite increased expenses, Microsoft reported $19.64 billion in positive free cash flow in Q2, outperforming rivals Alphabet and Amazon, who reported negative free cash flow.
