Microsoft has confirmed that it will fire up as many as 9,000 workers in the latest job cuts for the tech giant this year.
The company said that which divisions will be affected without specifying which divisions, but the report suggests that the Xbox video game unit will be a hit.
Microsoft plans to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) and spends $800 billion (£68.6 billion) on huge data centers to train AI models.
A company spokesperson told the BBC: “We continue to implement the organizational changes necessary to maximize our company to succeed in a dynamic market.”
The reduction amounts to 4% of Microsoft's 228,000 powerful global workforce.
So far, we have started redundancy three times in 2025.
The official database maintained by Washington state shows that more than 800 excluded positions will be concentrated in Redmond City and another Microsoft hub, Bellevue, in its hometown.
In recent years, like many other major technology companies, Microsoft has re-coupled its business towards AI development, including investments in data centers and chips.
Last year, the company hired British AI pioneer Mustafa Souleman to lead the new Microsoft AI division.
Top Microsoft executives recently told the BBC that the next half century will be “fundamentally defined by artificial intelligence,” changing the way we work and interact.
Microsoft is also a major investor and shareholder in Openai, the company behind the popular Chatbot ChatGpt, but the relationship has reportedly been strained in recent months.
Bloomberg reported that Microsoft is struggling to sell AI assistants known as Copilot to corporate customers, as many office workers prefer ChatGpt.
Microsoft's ranked workers and file workers layoffs have come as the top AI talent in the US's leading high-tech company courts.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has poached rival talent to form the “Superintelligence” lab.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly personally involved in the recruitment.
Openai boss Sam Altman recently said that members of his team have received offers of more than $100 million (£74.3 million) as “signature bonuses” from Meta.
Last month, Amazon boss Andy Jassy said he expects AI to replace some of the company's workers.
