Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 as AI Spending Rises

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Microsoft Corp (MSFT, Financials) is giving voluntary buyouts to a wide swath of employees as it seeks to combine increasing expenditure on artificial intelligence with tighter cost controls.Some 60,000 people, or about 27% of Microsoft’s global workforce, are eligible for the program.Employees in the U.S., Canada, India and the U.K. are eligible to participate, with decisions expected in early December and departures planned for Dec. 31.The move comes as Microsoft has been investing more on data centers and AI infrastructure.The corporation has indicated it expects September-quarter capital expenditures to be greater than $50 billion, compared with $34.9 billion in capital investment and financing leasing a year earlier.Free cash flow is being squeezed at the same time.Microsoft produced $19.64 billion of free cash flow in the second quarter, down 23 percent from a year earlier.To investors, the buyout program suggests…