Microsoft’s 60,000 Buyout Offer Is Not a Layoff, and Google Is Quietly Doing the Same
Microsoft has offered voluntary exits to up to 60,000 employees, about a quarter of its workforce, and says it expects fewer than one in twenty to accept. Reuters reports that Google has expanded its own buyout offers to employees in five countries. Both come as spending on AI infrastructure climbs.
What Microsoft announced
The Voluntary Exit Offer is open to eligible employees in participating teams in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States at level 70 and below. Employees have until early December to decide, and those who accept leave on December 31. According to reporting, teams including AI experiences, Copilot, finance, human resources, Xbox and Windows + Devices are covered, while marketing, commercial and security teams are excluded.
A Microsoft spokesperson said similar voluntary programs usually see 3% to 5% uptake and that the company anticipates under 5% here. By comparison, about 30% of eligible employees accepted its first voluntary retirement program this spring, which went to roughly 8,700 long-tenured U.S. employees.
Eligible is not departing, and “AI-driven” is contested
Microsoft says AI is not driving its buyout programs. Some economists read the offer as part of a broader shift from labor to capital, noting that capital spending on property and equipment reached $115.9 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, up from $64.6 billion a year earlier, while the workforce shrank by about 5,000. Others argue it is about reshaping the workforce, not shrinking it: headcount was about 223,000 on June 30, close to where it was despite roughly 20,000 announced layoffs since 2024.
Google is doing something similar
Reuters reported on November 4 that Google confirmed it began offering voluntary exit packages in June to some employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland, as it tries to rein in costs amid heavy AI spending. The program appears to exclude key AI and cloud businesses, including DeepMind. Reuters could not determine how many employees accepted. In Switzerland, where Google employs about 5,000 people, those who accepted received one month's salary for each year of service, up to 12 months. In at least one case, Google followed voluntary offers in a division with a round of layoffs.
How we record these
Voluntary exit offers are not layoffs, and the number of people who leave is unknown. We do not add them to our layoff tracker, so they do not count toward our totals. If either company reports how many people actually left, or turns the program into involuntary cuts, we will review it for the tracker.
Primary documentation
Reuters (via Euronext): Google extends voluntary buyout offers to employees in several countries →
This article distinguishes company statements from outside interpretation. Neither Microsoft nor Google has attributed these programs to AI; the AI connection comes from analysts and from the context of rising AI spending.