Microsoft Offers Voluntary Buyouts to Around 60,000 Employees

The initiative, described as a "Voluntary Exit Offer," was announced through a post on Microsoft's blog written by Amy Coleman, the company's executive vice president responsible for people. Tom's Hardware quoted Coleman as saying the offer "reflects an important part of how we're evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter," and that it "builds on what we learned" from an earlier program.

The move follows a similar step in April, when Microsoft introduced its first voluntary retirement program. That earlier offer was available to roughly 7% of the company's U.S.-based workforce, and more than 30% of eligible employees took part, according to Tom's Hardware. TechCrunch characterized the buyouts as part of Microsoft's continuing efforts to reduce costs and restructure its workforce.

At GTC Berlin, CEO Jensen Huang cited roughly $2,000 per GPU per year to run Nvidia's agent software, as the firm leans further into software revenue.