About 60,000 Microsoft workers, equal to about a quarter of its global staff, are set to receive voluntary buyout offers from the company. This comes amid attempts to reduce costs while pouring money into AI spending. Chief People Officer Amy Coleman announced the program in a memo to employees on Monday.
Microsoft calls the program the Voluntary Exit Offer. The offer has been announced only two days before the company reports its quarterly earnings, and after thousands of job cuts earlier this year.
Who can apply and who is excluded
The offer is open to employees ranked level 70 or below. This includes general managers and some vice presidents, but not corporate vice presidents. Employees on participating teams in the US, Canada, India and the UK are also eligible.
Microsoft, however, added that its sales team, some engineering teams and certain corporate departments are excluded from accessing the offer. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that the offer covers AI experiences, Copilot, finance, human resources, Xbox and Windows + Devices. Employees working for the marketing, commercial business and security teams are also ineligible.
Coleman left the decision up to each business leader. “Participation varies based on each business’s priorities, customer commitments, and workforce needs,” she wrote in the memo. Microsoft also said age, years of service, and job performance do not affect eligibility.
What a departing employee receives
The payout follows Microsoft’s usual severance package. This package includes pay based on an employee’s level and years at the company. It also includes continued stock awards, health coverage for a limited time, and help finding another job. Unlike the company’s earlier retirement plan, it does not offer five years of health coverage.
Eligible employees will receive the offer by email and have until early December to decide. Those who accept will leave the company at the end of the year. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company has no plans to offer another buyout after this one.
A follow-up to the spring retirement offer
This is Microsoft’s second voluntary exit offer this year. The first was a retirement plan for about 8,750 US employees at the senior director level and below.
The offer used a “Rule of 70” formula, which added an employee’s age to their years at the company. More than 30% of those eligible took the offer. Microsoft later reported a $900 million charge for the program in its April earnings report, GeekWire reported.
Microsoft expects fewer employees to take up the new offer because the earlier retirement plan targeted longtime staff who were more likely to leave. In July, Coleman said Microsoft was considering making voluntary exit offers a regular way to manage the workforce.
The cost of the AI buildout
Microsoft had 223,000 full-time employees as of June 30, down from 228,000 a year earlier. The company also cut 4,800 jobs in July, equal to about 2% of its workforce, followed by more cuts in September. These came after a cut of over 15,000 jobs in 2025.
Microsoft is offering buyouts as investors push it to cut costs while spending tens of billions of dollars on data centers and AI. The company said the offer does not rule out layoffs, which may still happen depending on business needs. Alphabet and Meta have also offered employees similar deals, according to Yahoo Finance.
Microsoft shares were in the green by 1.1% at a price of $530.42 at the time of writing. The company may reveal the cost of the program when it reports its earnings on Wednesday.
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