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Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 staff in AI-driven cost shift

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Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to around 60,000 employees across the US, UK, Canada, and India, marking its largest such offer to date and expanding from a retirement offer limited to about 9,000 employees earlier this year. The move is part of an effort to lower operating costs while avoiding cuts to AI infrastructure investment, signaling a workforce shift tied to AI.

Coverage timeline

  1. The Verge AITom Warren
    Microsoft’s AI future has fewer jobs

    To anyone listening closely to what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been saying over the past couple of years, this week felt like the clearest sign yet that AI is about to fundamentally change the size of Microsoft's workforce. Microsoft is now offering voluntary buyouts to around 60,000 employees across the US, UK, Canada, and India. It's the first time the company has presented such an offer to so many employees, expanding greatly upon the retirement offer that was limited to around 9,000 employees earlier this year. It's all part of an ongoing effort to avoid reducing investment in AI infrastructure by lowering Microsoft's operating cos … Read the full story at The Verge.

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