Microsoft opened a voluntary exit offer on Monday to workers in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom at experience level 70 and below. About 60,000 people qualify, or roughly 27 percent of a workforce near 223,000.
The company already ran a first retirement program in April, when about 7 percent of US staff were eligible and more than 30 percent of them took it. In July it cut 4,800 jobs.
The new round reaches higher, to the vice president level, and is the largest by headcount. Staff must decide in early December, with departures on Dec. 31.
Which teams opt in
Sources told The Verge that AI experiences, Copilot, CoreAI, Windows and Devices, Xbox, finance and human resources are participating. Cloud and AI, the MicrosoftAI unit and parts of legal are only partly in.
Marketing, commercial business, security and the discovery and quantum groups are not taking part. Some teams have already declined to offer buyouts.
The balance sheet behind it
Microsoft has been pouring cash into data centers to serve Anthropic, OpenAI and others. In the second quarter it still reported $19.64B of positive free cash flow, though that was down 23 percent year over year, while Alphabet and Amazon both went negative.
The company now bills many customers on how much AI they actually consume. Chief people officer Amy Coleman framed the exit offer as flexibility for employees rather than a cost cut.
