Microsoft to offer voluntary retirement to thousands of US employees for the first time
The Microsoft campus in Mountain View
(CNN) — Microsoft is offering about 7% of its US workforce the option to retire early, the latest attempt by a major tech firm to downsize while ramping up artificial intelligence investments.
The one-time retirement program, a company first, will be available to employees whose age and years of service total 70 or higher, Microsoft said.
CNBC and Bloomberg first reported the voluntary buyouts, which the company confirmed to CNN.
Those at the senior director level and below will be able to participate, and Microsoft plans to notify eligible employees on May 7.
Microsoft shares (MSFT) fell nearly 4% on Thursday, the day the company informed employees about the program.
Tech giants have made sweeping staff cuts over the past year in response to the impact of AI on both the workforce and the broader tech industry. Meta on Thursday said it would cut 10% of its workers, or roughly 8,000 jobs, to operate more efficiently and offset other investments. Amazon eliminated 30,000 jobs across two rounds of layoffs in January and October. And fintech company Block slashed a staggering 40% of its staff earlier this year because “a significantly smaller team” can “do more and do it better” with AI tools.
Microsoft, like other tech companies, has been investing heavily in AI infrastructure and tools. It spent $37.5 billion on expenses related to data centers and infrastructure in the quarter that ended in December.
Some tech leaders have claimed that AI has enabled them to accomplish more with smaller teams, thanks in part to AI’s proficiency in writing code. Microsoft is among the many companies offering developers coding agents that can work on their behalf.
The voluntary buyouts come after Microsoft laid off around 9,000 workers last summer, its largest cuts since 2023.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company’s three business priorities are security, quality and AI transformation in a memo addressing the July layoffs last year.
“This platform shift is reshaping not only the products we build and the business models we operate under, but also how we are structured and how we work together every day,” he wrote. “It might feel messy at times, but transformation always is.”
CNN’s John Towfighi contributed to this report.
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