Microsoft is offering voluntary redundancy to approximately 7% of its workforce, marking a first for the 51-year-old tech giant. The program targets long-serving employees whose years of service plus age total 70 or more, affecting more than 8,000 of Microsoft's 125,000 US employees. Chief people officer Amy Coleman described the offer as giving employees "the choice to take that next step with generous company support."

The initiative follows Microsoft's dismissal of over 15,000 workers last year and comes as the company commits to spend $140bn in capital expenditure in its current fiscal year. Microsoft's shares have slipped about 14% this year, trailing peers as investors question its ability to commercialize AI investments amid competition from AI startups.

Microsoft is racing to build data center capacity for AI customers including Anthropic and OpenAI, while struggling with its own AI model development. The company has largely relied on OpenAI for AI models underpinning its services, though its AI chief Mustafa Suleyman has signaled efforts toward greater self-sufficiency. Microsoft's internal AI model-building has floundered relative to Google, with the group yet to unveil a frontier model.