🏢Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees as AI Restructuring Continues

Your Microsoft colleagues may be walking out the door

Microsoft is offering buyouts to around 60,000 employees, and the goal is clear: cut costs and rework the workforce around AI. Eligible staff are vice president level and below on select teams. If you work at Microsoft or depend on teams that do, this changes who you're pairing with next quarter. Buyouts are voluntary, but the note from the Chief People Officer makes clear the company wants people to consider a future outside. Expect org shifts on the teams that opt in. The eligibility is narrow on purpose. Employees in U.S., Canada, India, and U.K. are covered, but data center, sales, and marketing staff are excluded. The package mirrors a standard severance package. This follows an earlier round for retirement-age employees, where more than 30% of roughly 8,750 eligible workers accepted. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment, so the exact headcount impact is still unknown. Watch for whether this becomes a pattern across the industry.