Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Workers, More Than a Quarter of Its Staff
Microsoft on Monday offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly 27% of its 223,000-person workforce, the Associated Press reported, as AI spending soars.
Amy Coleman, executive vice president and chief people officer, announced the Voluntary Exit Offer in a memo Microsoft posted on its official blog. It covers eligible workers in participating teams in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and India at internal level 70 and below.
“The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We’ll learn from it,” Coleman wrote. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee.”
Not every group is taking part. Participation “varies based on each business’s priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs,” she wrote, adding that some teams are focused on growth while others are reallocating resources.
The package mirrors Microsoft’s standard severance, according to GeekWire. It includes base pay tied to tenure and level, continued stock vesting, healthcare coverage for a fixed period and career transition services.
Unlike the company’s spring retirement program, it does not include extended healthcare. There are no age or tenure requirements, and performance is not a factor. The sales organization, some engineering groups and some corporate functions are excluded.
Level 70 reaches general managers and some employees with vice president titles, but not corporate vice presidents. Employees have until the first week of December to decide, and those who accept will leave Dec. 31.
Severance Terms and Earlier Cuts
Terms will resemble the U.S. severance Microsoft paid in layoffs earlier this year, Business Insider reported: a minimum of 60 days of base pay and up to 39 weeks for most employees, based on seniority and tenure.
A Microsoft spokesperson told the outlet there are no plans for another buyout at this time.
The offer follows Microsoft’s first voluntary retirement program this spring. About 30% of roughly 8,750 eligible U.S. employees accepted that deal, and the company recorded a $900 million charge for it.
Microsoft cut about 4,800 jobs in July and hundreds more in September, after eliminating more than 15,000 positions in 2025. Headcount stood at 228,000 a year earlier.
The company said the offer does not replace layoffs, which remain possible depending on business conditions, and it expects a much smaller share of eligible workers to accept than took the retirement program.
The move comes as AI infrastructure costs climb. Microsoft said in July that capital expenditures for the September quarter would top $50 billion, up from $34.9 billion a year earlier, CNBC noted.
Free cash flow fell 23% to $19.64 billion in the quarter that ended in June. Rivals Alphabet and Amazon both reported negative free cash flow as they ramped up their own data center spending.
Microsoft reports fiscal first-quarter results Wednesday, when investors will look for clues on the cost of the buyout and on whether its AI spending is paying off.
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