American corporation Microsoft has launched a large-scale voluntary employee separation program with compensation payments. The offer extends to approximately 60,000 employees – more than a quarter of the company's entire workforce. This comes amid the technology giant's increased spending on artificial intelligence development.

This is reported by TechCrunch, citing Microsoft's official announcement on October 26.

The new Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) program will operate in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India. It provides the opportunity to voluntarily leave the company while receiving financial compensation and assistance with future employment.

The notice was sent to employees by Microsoft Executive Vice President for Human Resources Amy Coleman. According to her, the program is intended to give employees more opportunities to independently determine their future careers, and the company – to more flexibly adapt its workforce structure to changes in the business.

The offer is available to employees in certain divisions up to level 70 inclusive under Microsoft's internal job system. This category includes not only rank-and-file employees and managers, but also some senior leaders.

According to The Verge, the program covers the Xbox, Windows + Devices, Copilot, CoreAI, finance, and human resources divisions. It also partially involves some teams working on cloud technologies and artificial intelligence.

However, the offer does not extend to all organizational units. In particular, marketing, corporate sales, quantum technologies, and information security teams are not participating in the program.

Microsoft emphasizes that participation is entirely voluntary. Eligible employees will receive personalized notifications with information about available compensation packages.

According to TechCrunch, the financial terms will be similar to Microsoft's standard severance payments. The specific compensation amount will depend on the position, length of service, and other individual conditions.

The company has not publicly set a target for the number of employees who should leave the workforce. Therefore, 60,000 is the number of employees who could potentially take advantage of the offer, not a planned layoff figure.

As of June 2026, Microsoft employed approximately 223,000 full-time workers worldwide. Thus, the new program potentially covers about 27% of the workforce.

This is not Microsoft's first large-scale workforce initiative in 2026. In the spring, the corporation offered voluntary early retirement to approximately 8,750 employees in the United States. At that time, more than 30% of eligible employees took advantage of the offer.

In addition, in the summer Microsoft announced the elimination of about 4,800 positions, particularly in the Xbox gaming division and corporate sales structures.

The new program is being introduced amid a massive ramp-up of investments in artificial intelligence, data centers, and computing infrastructure. The company aims to control operating costs while directing more resources toward promising technological areas.

At the same time, Microsoft stresses that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to changing the workforce structure. Individual division leaders independently determine the appropriateness of participation in the program based on business needs.

Based on materials from: Microsoft, TechCrunch, The Verge