Tech and AI

Microsoft offers voluntary exit packages to about 60,000 employees, more than a quarter of its workforce, as its AI spending climbs

By Staff Writer  |  27 October 2026

The offer covers staff at level 70 and below in participating teams in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, and follows a retirement scheme taken up earlier this year.

Microsoft has offered voluntary exit packages to about 60,000 employees, the company said on Monday 26 October. It had 223,000 full-time employees worldwide at 30 June, according to its annual filing, so the offer reaches more than a quarter of its workforce.

The scheme was announced in a memo to staff from Amy Coleman, the company's chief people officer. It applies to eligible employees at internal level 70 and below in teams that have chosen to take part, in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Some parts of the business are offering it and others are not, depending on their priorities and customer commitments.

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, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, Microsoft

Terms and timing

A Microsoft spokesperson said the terms would be similar to the company's standard severance, and that eligible staff would have until early December to decide whether to accept and leave at the end of the year. The memo describes the offer as time-limited and voluntary, and says those eligible would receive the details by email within hours.

Level 70 reaches into senior leadership, and earlier this year the company ran a Voluntary Retirement Program, offered on age and tenure to about 9,000 employees, and in July it announced 4,800 job cuts, about 2.1 per cent of its global workforce, including a reorganisation of its Xbox gaming business.

Microsoft has forecast 175 billion dollars of capital expenditure for calendar 2026, while it offers a quarter of its staff the chance to leave.

The cost of the build-out

Microsoft, like its rivals, is spending heavily on data centres and the chips that run AI models, and investors have questioned whether the returns will justify the cost. The company reports its first-quarter results after the market closes on Wednesday. Its shares, up about 10 per cent this year, rose about 1 per cent on Monday. Microsoft did not say how many staff in any single country had received the offer.

Because a voluntary scheme lets a company shrink without choosing who goes, the figure to watch is how many of the 60,000 accept, and whether that number is enough to make another round of compulsory cuts unnecessary.