Microsoft has begun offering voluntary buyouts to eligible employees, with reports saying about 60,000 people could take part. The company announced the programme, called the Voluntary Exit Offer, on Monday, 26 October.
If the reported figure is right, it is a very large voluntary exit programme at one of the biggest software companies, and it arrives while Microsoft reshapes its workforce and spends heavily on AI.
Level 70 and below, in four countries
Microsoft, which closed its Pakistan office in 2025, says in its announcement post that only employees at level 70 and below can apply, and only in teams that have signed up, across four countries: Canada, India, the UK and the US. Whether a team takes part is decided by its own business priorities, commitments to customers and staffing needs.
TechCrunch reports that Xbox, Windows, Copilot and Finance are taking part, while some groups, including data centre teams and parts of sales and marketing, are excluded.
Microsoft said eligible staff would get an emailed link to their personal offer details within hours of the announcement. The offer is time-limited and voluntary, and it provides financial support and career planning resources to those who leave. Business Insider first reported the news. The same report says the terms are similar to Microsoft’s standard severance.
“The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us”
The post was written by Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s chief people officer. She described the offer as “a new choice to make that transition now with support” for people who may be thinking about a future outside the company. “The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We’ll learn from it,” she wrote, adding that “there is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee.”
Microsoft had about 223,000 employees at the end of June, so the reported figure is over a quarter of its global workforce.
Layoffs and AI spending in the same year
Engadget notes the move comes as Microsoft trims costs while spending heavily on AI infrastructure. It reports roughly $175 billion in capital expenditure for 2026 and nearly 90 data centres opened this year, while layoffs have already hit Xbox and other departments.
Following the retirement programme
Microsoft says the new offer builds on the Voluntary Retirement Program it ran earlier this year, which was aimed at retirement-age employees. According to that report, over 30% of the about 8,750 workers who qualified took it.
Microsoft has not said how many people it expects to leave or when the offer window closes. We’ll update this post if the company shares more.
