Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees

Microsoft, the maker of Windows and the Azure cloud provider, recently offered about 60,000 employees in the US, UK, Canada, and India a chance to leave through a voluntary buyout program. The company did something similar back in spring, but that offer went to only 9,000 employees. As a result, Microsoft's headcount shrank year over year for the first time in a decade, dropping to roughly 223,000 people.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company wants to cut overall spending on people while increasing investment in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. In short, fewer people and more AI. This is probably the clearest signal yet that large companies, not just startups built around AI agents from the start, are cutting jobs to pay for AI.