What's Microsoft's buyout offer? Everything to know about voluntary exit program

Microsoft said Monday, October 26, that it is offering voluntary buyouts to roughly 60,000 employees.

This marks 27% of its global workforce, as the company seeks to trim costs while funding massive artificial intelligence investments.

The program, titled the "Voluntary Exit Offer” covers eligible workers in the U.S., Canada, India, and the U.K. at the experience level of 70 and below.

Some AI, Copilot, finance, humans resources, Xbox, and Windows teams will be included, while units such as marketing, commercial business, and security will be excluded.

Employees must decide in early December and those participating will leave on December 31.

The move follows Microsoft’s first-every voluntary retirement program announced in April, open to about 7% of U.S. employees, and July layoffs of 4,800 workers.

The new offers extends eligibility higher, to the vice president level, though the company said it has no specific target this time.

Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said in a staff memo: “This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating organixations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.”

Microsoft is expected to make an investment worth $175 billion for 2026 as part of its plans to develop data centres and processors that will support its AI customers like OpenAI and Anthropic. Microsoft reported positive cash flow worth $19.64 billion for the second quarter, which represented a decline of 23% compared to the same period last year.

The total number of full-time employees at Microsoft was 223,000 as of June 30. Its share price increased by 1% on Monday.