Microsoft Reportedly Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees in Latest Cuts, Guardian Reports
Bot Mutiny |
Summary
Microsoft is offering buyouts to 60,000 employees, according to reports the Guardian cites, as the company and its peers cut staff while investing in AI. The Guardian notes it is unclear whether earlier cuts have produced greater efficiency.
Microsoft is offering buyouts to 60,000 employees in an effort to reduce costs amid the rising use of artificial intelligence, according to reports cited by the Guardian on Oct. 26, 2026. The Guardian attributed the details of which divisions are involved to a Bloomberg report on Monday. Microsoft's chief people officer, Amy Coleman, referred to the offer in a statement quoted by the Guardian, which also said the company did not respond to a request for comment on further details.
What was reported
The Guardian wrote that some of Microsoft's most recognizable divisions, including Xbox, Windows and Copilot, its AI tool, will take part in the offer, citing Bloomberg. Employees in certain divisions, including cybersecurity, datacenters and marketing, would not be eligible, according to the same report.
Amy Coleman, Microsoft's executive vice-president and chief people officer, said in a statement quoted by the Guardian: "This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs."
Earlier cuts this year
The Guardian described the offer as the latest of several trimmings Microsoft has made to its workforce this year. In April, the company announced it was offering voluntary retirement to about 7% of its US workforce, which then consisted of about 125,000 employees. Microsoft's global workforce is about 223,000 workers, the Guardian reported.
The wider pattern in tech
The Guardian placed the offer alongside cuts at other large technology companies this year. It reported that Meta announced plans in April to cut 10% of its personnel, or about 8,000 employees, to boost efficiency, and that Amazon has made several cuts to its workforce, most recently in its retail division. In June, Oracle shed nearly 13% of its workforce, cutting 21,000 jobs, as a result of AI, the Guardian wrote, linking to a CNBC report.
Questions about the payoff
The Guardian noted it is unclear whether these workforce-reduction measures have yet translated into greater efficiency, and that some companies, including Meta, have scaled back their layoff plans. It also reported that Ryan Roslansky, a top Microsoft leader, recently complained about "AI slop" in the workforce on social media.
The Guardian cited a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research that surveyed 9,000 senior executives around the world. In that survey, 90% of executives said AI had yet to result in greater productivity at their companies, according to the Guardian.
What the reports do not say
The Guardian's article does not give the terms of the buyouts, how long employees have to decide, or how many are expected to accept. The Guardian does not name Bloomberg as the source of the 60,000 figure itself, attributing it to "reports." It does not say how many of the 60,000 employees offered buyouts work in AI-related roles, and it attributes the connection to AI to the reports it relies on rather than to a statement from Microsoft. Bot Mutiny has not independently confirmed the Bloomberg report, which was not available for this article.