Microsoft celebrates its 50th anniversary
Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 4, 2025, raising the company flag over a space needle featuring the original 90s logo.
Fox – Seattle
Almost three months after celebrating its 50th anniversary, Microsoft has settled around 4% of its workforce, the company said Wednesday.
According to Reuters, the tech giant intends to reduce its organizational tier by having fewer managers and streamlining its products, procedures and roles.
The layoffs affecting employees of various teams, geography and experience levels will come on the second day of Microsoft’s fiscal year 2026, CNBC reports, citing people who are familiar with the issue.
A Microsoft spokesperson said, according to CNBC, The Associated Press and Seattle Times, “We continue to implement the organizational changes necessary to position our company and teams to succeed in a dynamic market.”
According to the AP, Microsoft began sending layoff notifications to employees on Wednesday, July 2nd. CNBC and the Seattle Times report that the cuts will affect around 9,000 workers.
USA Today has contacted Microsoft.
What’s behind the layoff?
According to Reuters, the layoffs could be attributed to Microsoft’s desire to cut costs as they continue to invest heavily in artificial intelligence.
Microsoft has pledged to capital expenditures of $80 billion in 2025. However, the increase in AI infrastructure costs will affect margins, with cloud margins expected to shrink in the June quarter from last year.
Other large tech companies that invest heavily in artificial intelligence have also decided to fire workers. Facebook’s parent meta said it would fire around 5% of its “lowest performers” earlier this year, while Alphabet’s Google has also fired hundreds of employees in the past year.
Previous rounds of Microsoft layoffs
In May, Microsoft announced that it would fire around 3% of its total workforce. CNBC and Verge reported that the decision would affect approximately 6,000 employees. In January, Microsoft cut less than 1% of its employees based on performance, CNBC reported.
“At Microsoft, we focus on high-performance talent,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC in January. “We’re always committed to helping people learn and grow. When people aren’t playing, we take the right action.”
Other notable layoffs from Microsoft came when the company cut 10,000 jobs in 2023, eliminating 18,000 jobs after the acquisition of Nokia’s device and services business in 2014.
According to the Microsoft website, as of June 2024, it employs approximately 228,000 workers worldwide, including 126,000 in the US.
Contributions: Melina Kahn, USA Today and Reuters
Jonathan Limehouse covers USA Today’s broken and trending news. Contact him at jlimehouse@gannett.com.
