Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees

The software maker announced a new voluntary exit offer for certain workers in the U.S., Canada, India and the United Kingdom at its experience level of 70 or below.

Around 60,000 people are eligible, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named while discussing an internal matter.

Microsoft has been ramping up spending on data centers to accommodate high demand in artificial intelligence, supplying cloud services to Anthropic, OpenAI and a slew of other companies. That put a strain on Microsoft’s finances. In April, it announced a first-ever voluntary retirement program that around 7% of U.S. employees were eligible for.

“The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we’re evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter,” Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s executive vice president and chief people officer, wrote in a memo to employees. “This builds on what we learned earlier this year through the Voluntary Retirement Program.”

In the second quarter, Microsoft’s cloud rivals, Alphabet and Amazon, both reported negative free cash flow, but Microsoft was able to maintain positive free cash flow.

Some marketing, sales and engineering teams have decided not to participate in the program, the person said.

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