By Hamza Faisal

Microsoft has offered voluntary buyouts to around 60,000 employees, in one of the largest workforce resets in the company's history, as it redirects spending toward artificial intelligence. The offer, announced to staff on Monday, October 26, 2026, is voluntary and time-limited, but its scale shows how aggressively the software giant is remaking itself for the AI era.

The programme, called the Voluntary Exit Offer, was announced in a memo from Amy Coleman, Microsoft's chief people officer. "This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support," Coleman wrote, describing it as part of how Microsoft is "evolving our approach to change."

Who is eligible, and who is not

The offer covers employees at level 70 and below, vice president level and below, on participating teams in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. Not every part of the company is taking part: Coleman wrote that "some organizations are providing the Voluntary Exit Offer, and some are not."

According to a source cited by Reuters, the offer touches key divisions including AI experiences, Copilot, finance, human resources, Xbox and Windows + Devices. Units such as marketing, commercial business and security are excluded, the source said, as are some data centre, sales and marketing staff, according to other reports.

Employees who accept will receive financial support and career planning resources, with a package similar to a standard severance offer, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. Eligible staff were told to expect an email with their individual offer details within hours.

How big 60,000 really is

The 60,000 figure comes from Business Insider and Bloomberg, citing a company spokesperson; Microsoft itself did not confirm the number when contacted by Reuters. Against a full-time workforce of roughly 223,000 as of June 30, the eligible pool represents about 27 percent of the company, though not everyone offered the deal is expected to take it.

For comparison, Microsoft offered buyouts earlier this year to retirement-age employees, with more than 30 percent of the roughly 8,750 eligible workers accepting. The new offer is far broader, reaching deep into the product and engineering ranks rather than only near-retirees.

An AI bill that keeps growing

The move is the latest step in Microsoft's effort to cut costs and rework its workforce for AI, even as it spends heavily on the data centres and chips needed to run its AI products. The company has spent the past two years trimming roles in some areas while hiring aggressively in AI research and infrastructure, a reshuffle that has now reached a scale few in the industry have attempted voluntarily.

Investors took the news calmly: Microsoft shares were up about 1.1 percent at $530.20 by midday in New York on Monday. The company has not disclosed what the programme will cost or how many employees it expects to accept. For the tens of thousands weighing the offer, the decision is now personal: stay with a company being rebuilt around AI, or take the exit package and leave on their own terms.

By Hamza Faisal