Microsoft has offered about 60,000 of its employees a way out. The company announced a Voluntary Exit Offer on October 26, 2026. Eligible staff can take financial support and leave, but nobody is being forced to. The 60,000 figure is the estimated number who can apply. It comes from a Microsoft spokesperson.
Who can apply
The offer covers selected teams in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. Employees must be at Microsoft’s internal level 70 or below, which includes some senior leaders, and each team decides whether to take part. The company had 223,000 full-time workers on June 30, 2026, so 60,000 is about 26.9% of that figure. That headcount predates July’s job cuts and later departures.
Teams taking part include AI Experiences, Copilot, Finance, Human Resources, Xbox and Windows + Devices. Marketing, the commercial business, security and the sales organisation are reportedly not participating, and some engineering and corporate teams are out too. Microsoft says groups can opt in or out depending on business priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs.
Chief People Officer Amy Coleman described the offer as a way for employees who are thinking about a future elsewhere to leave with support, while letting teams adjust to changing needs.
What the package includes
Microsoft has not published one payout amount. The company offers include:
- levels 64 and below: one week of base pay for every six months of service
- levels 65 to 67: two weeks of base pay for every six months of service
- standard severance capped at 39 weeks of base pay for levels 67 and below
- level 68: a standard offer of 12 months of salary
US offers also continue stock vesting for six or 12 months, depending on tenure, and health insurance for a set period. The new offer does not include the extended healthcare of the earlier retirement programme. Terms may differ outside the US.
Staff have until the first week of December to decide, and departures are scheduled for December 31.
Why now
Microsoft is spending heavily on AI infrastructure. In the quarter of July, it spent $41 billion on capital expenditure, about two-thirds of it on shorter-lived assets, mainly CPUs and GPUs. It expects about $175 billion for calendar 2026. Capital spending is investment in long-term assets, and it is separate from salaries. Microsoft says the data centres serve AI and non-AI work alike.
The company has also been reorganising. In July it said it was cutting about 4,800 roles, around 2.1% of its workforce. Earlier, in April 2026, it offered a voluntary retirement package to about 8,750 US employees, and roughly 30% of them accepted.
Is AI replacing these workers?
Microsoft has not said the 60,000 eligible employees are being replaced by AI. When it announced compulsory cuts in July, Coleman said those roles would not be directly replaced by AI. A May 2026 analysis from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found that AI’s overall effect on employment was still uncertain, and that some companies may be cutting jobs to pay for AI spending or to restructure after earlier hiring.
The company’s own positions can be summed up like this: AI is changing where it spends and how work is organised, but the number of jobs directly lost to AI in this programme is not clear.
Nor does the offer show Microsoft in financial trouble. In the July quarter it had $55.4 billion in operating cash flow and $19.6 billion in free cash flow after capital spending.
What this means for Nepal
Nepal is not on the list of eligible countries, so no direct job losses in Nepal have been announced. The wider question for Nepali tech workers is how AI changes demand for developers, technical support, digital marketing and design roles, and whether entry-level staff face more competition.
What happens next
Microsoft reports quarterly results on Wednesday, October 28, after US markets close. Investors will look for news on revenue, cloud growth, capital spending and the outlook.
