Microsoft (MSFT) has offered voluntary buyout packages to 60,000 of its employees as it moves to adopt more artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies.
The software giant said the buyout packages have been offered to workers in the U.S., Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.
Around 60,000 people are eligible to take a buyout and voluntarily leave the company. The buyout packages target 27% of Microsoft’s global workforce of 223,000 people.
The voluntary separation agreements are being issued by Microsoft as it ramps up spending on A.I. data centres and related technologies.
The company is expected to report that its capital expenditures for this year’s third quarter exceeded $50 billion U.S., up from $34.90 billion U.S. a year earlier.
In April of this year, Microsoft announced its first-ever voluntary retirement program, which targeted about 7% of its U.S. employees.
The latest buyout offer to employees also comes as Microsoft transforms its business model, trying to charge clients based on how much A.I. they use.
It also comes as Microsoft itself adopts and uses more A.I. technologies, eliminating the need for many programmers, sellers, and supply chain workers.
Employees at Seattle-based Microsoft must decide whether to take the buyout offer by early December, and those participating will leave the company on Dec. 31 of this year.
Microsoft said that more than 30% of people offered a voluntary buyout in April accepted the offer.
The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results after markets close on Oct. 28.
MSFT stock is essentially flat (up 0.20%) over the past 12 months and trading at $532.60 U.S. per share.
Tech Insider
