By Jordan Novet
Publication Date: 2026-04-23 15:15:00
A view of a Microsoft office in Shanghai, China, on April 8, 2025.
Ying Tang | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Microsoft will offer voluntary buyouts to a small percentage of its workforce, a first for the 51-year-old software giant, as the tech industry grapples with major changes sparked by the artificial intelligence boom.
The one-time retirement program, announced in a memo on Thursday, will be available to U.S. workers at the senior director level and below whose years of employment and age add up to 70 or higher. Eligible employees and their managers will receive details on May 7. Those with sales incentive plans cannot participate.
Microsoft has been ramping up capital spending on data centers to supply cloud clients with computing power that can handle generative AI models. Technology peers such as Alphabet and Amazon are doing the same. Meanwhile, software stocks are getting hammered as coding tools from Anthropic and others threaten to disrupt established companies.
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