Microsoft Cuts down another 9,000 jobs while pouring record cash into AI

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Microsoft Cuts down another 9,000 jobs while pouring record cash into AI

Microsoft is letting go of up to 9,000 employees, about four percent of its global workforce, in the company’s latest round of layoffs this year. Internal emails say the cuts span several divisions, and gaming sources point to the Xbox group as one of the harder-hit teams. The move arrives as the software giant pursues an $80 billion build-out of data-center capacity to train and run its next-generation AI models, a priority senior leadership describes as “foundational” to future growth.

This is Microsoft’s third sizable staff reduction of 2025, following roughly 2,000 departures in January and 6,000 more in May. All told, the company has trimmed just over seven percent of its headcount since New Year’s Day. Executives say the restructuring will “streamline layers” and increase agility ahead of the new fiscal year, even as strong cloud revenue and record profits leave the balance sheet in robust shape. For employees and industry watchers, the juxtaposition is striking: aggressive investment in AI infrastructure on one hand, repeated cuts to human talent on the other. Microsoft insists the shake-ups are about reallocating resources, not replacing people outright, but it also acknowledges that AI now writes a growing share of its own code base. The episode highlights a reality playing out across Big Tech in 2025, companies are racing to secure AI advantage, and the human cost of that race is becoming impossible to ignore.