Microsoft to cut up to 9,000 jobs as it invests in AI

 

Microsoft has confirmed that it will lay off as many as 9,000 workers, in the technology giant's latest wave of job cuts this year.

 The company said several divisions would be affected without specifying which ones but reports suggest that its Xbox video gaming unit will be hit.

 Microsoft has set out plans to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), and is spending $80bn (£68.6bn) in huge data centres to train AI models.

 A spokesperson for the firm told the BBC: "We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace."

 The cuts would equate to 4% of Microsoft's 228,000-strong global workforce.

 So far in 2025, it has started three more rounds of layoffs, including announcing in May that it would cut 6,000 jobs. An official database maintained by Washington state shows that more than 800 of the positions eliminated will be concentrated in the city of Redmond as well as in Bellevue, another Microsoft hub in its home state.

 In recent years, like many other big technology firms, Microsoft has refocussed its business towards developing AI, including investing in data centres and chips.

 Last year, the company hired British AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman to lead its new Microsoft AI division.

 The BBC recently heard from a high-ranking Microsoft executive that artificial intelligence will "fundamentally define" the next 50 years, transforming how we work and interact with one another. Microsoft is also a major investor and shareholder in OpenAI, the company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, although the relationship has reportedly grown tense in recent months.

 According to Bloomberg, Microsoft has had difficulty selling its AI assistant, Copilot, to business customers due to the preference of many office workers for ChatGPT. The layoffs among rank and file workers at Microsoft come as major US tech companies court top AI talent.

 Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has been poaching talent from rivals to form a 'superintelligence' lab.

 Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, is said to have personally participated in recruiting. OpenAI boss Sam Altman said recently that members of his team had been getting offers of more than $100m (£74.3m) as "signing bonuses" from Meta.

 Last month, Amazon boss Andy Jassy said he expected AI would replace some of his firm's workers.