Microsoft's buyouts imperil its artificial intelligence ambitions
Source: The Star
Published on: 2026-11-05 21:21
MICROSOFT offered buyouts to roughly a quarter of its employees last week, or about 60,000 people. This follows layoffs of 2% of its workforce in July, and the company's first-ever voluntary retirement offer to 7% of employees in April. Microsoft appears to be creating fiscal room for the US$170bil it's spending on capital projects this year, much of it on data centres for artificial intelligence (AI). Paying people to leave is the decent way to shrink a company, and fits the gentler culture that Microsoft chief executive officer (CEO) Satya Nadella has worked to instil. But Microsoft may have created a retention bonus in reverse - because for companies betting on AI, the people they want most to stay are the ones a tenure-based buyout offer pays most to leave. This has always been a risk of buyouts, although there are ways to structure them to avoid losing crucial employees. When ...
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