Microsoft slashes workforce again after major cuts of 6,000 roles

Washington: Just weeks after a major workforce layoff in years, removing 6,000 positions in the company, it has eliminated more than 300 additional jobs on Monday, according to Bloomberg.

Microsoft issued a notice to Washington state in which the announcement was made but did not disclose which specific roles were removed. The company is laying off jobs as part of restructuring while it invests billions in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Last month, Microsoft reduced 6,000 positions, its second largest slashing of workforce after it reduced 10,000 roles in 2023. CEO Satya Nadella called the latest layoffs a “realignement” rather than performance-based termniations.

"This was not about people failing. It was about repositioning for what comes next," Nadella was quoted from his explanation at an internal town hall by Bloomberg, referring to the company’s transition to AI.

According to reports, while it is not clear which sections of employees are going to be affected, software engineers and project managers are likely to have slashed as per previous layoff patterns in the company.

In the last month's cut, most hits were software engineers, with 40 per cent of those eliminated in Washington being coding professionals. Nearly 30 per cent of the roles were in project management, though Microsoft claimed that it is reducing management layers.

Nadella said that layoffs coincide with Microsoft’s revelation that AI now writes up to 30 per cent of code in certain company projects.

This fiscal year, Microsoft has allocated approximately $80 billion for data centre spending in its AI infrastructure push.