Microsoft is inviting a large share of its workforce to leave the company voluntarily. The company announced the new buyout program on Monday, and it covers employees in four countries.
The offer is open to eligible workers in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. To qualify, an employee must be at experience level 70 or below. A person familiar with the matter, who was not named because the details are internal, cited in a CNBC report, said about 60,000 people can apply. That is roughly 27% of the 223,000 people Microsoft employs worldwide.
Key dates
Employees will have until December to decide whether to accept. Anyone who says yes will leave the company on Dec. 31, according to the same source. Some marketing, sales and engineering teams have already decided to sit this one out, the person said.
Why Microsoft is doing it
According to CNBC, the move comes as Microsoft tries to keep spending in check while it pours money into artificial intelligence. The company has been building more data centers to meet heavy demand for AI computing power. It provides cloud services to Anthropic, OpenAI and many other companies, and the cost of that expansion has put pressure on its finances.
Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s chief people officer, addressed the program in a memo to staff. She described it as a way to give employees more flexibility and “more ways for employees to shape their next chapter.” She added that it builds on lessons from an earlier program this year.
A third round of changes this year
This is not the first workforce move from Microsoft in 2026. In April, the company launched its first voluntary retirement program, which about 7% of U.S. employees could join. In July, it said it would lay off 4,800 people.
Microsoft said in July that more than 30% of eligible employees took the retirement offer. That program was limited to senior directors and below. The new buyout reaches higher, up to the vice president level. The person briefed on the plan said Microsoft has not set a target for how many people should accept.
The money picture
Microsoft’s finances are still in better shape than those of some rivals. In the second quarter, Alphabet and Amazon each reported negative free cash flow. Microsoft’s free cash flow was positive at $19.64 billion, though that was down 23% from a year earlier.
Investors will get a fresh look at the numbers soon. Microsoft is scheduled to report its third-quarter results on Wednesday.
