This latest RIF (reduction in force) is estimated at around 9,000 (based on Microsoft’s 4% of its global workforce). This is on the heels of the previous 3% (approximately 6,000) that were laid off in May 2025. Over the past two years, the company has terminated around 30,000 worldwide. This is in spite of the company raking in record revenues and profits while their market capitalization is reaching all time highs.
I opined about the Activision Blizzard related cuts back in early 2024 (that M&A was finalized in October 2023; I was previously an ATVI shareholder). That one was around 1,900 when the company had a 3 TRILLION dollar market capitalization (this came down with the rest of the market in early 2025 due to all of the economic turmoil created by the tariff drama, but MSFT has sprung back up even higher where it is now vying with Nvidia to be the first 4 TRILLION dollar market cap company). 3 trillion is 3,000 billion or 3,000,000 million just for context. In short, it’s a lot and as of this writing, MSFT’s market cap is around $3.7 trillion.
This round of layoff seems to be focused on the Xbox division where Phil Spencer (who heads the gaming division) put out this e-mail that sounded like a cheerful read about how well they’ve been doing and the “reward” for accomplishing that was this latest round of layoffs.
The above is full of corporate executive PR doublespeak in a feeble attempt to hide the broken system of infinite growth at all costs mentality that has perverted “capital” markets. Continued success is one of those buzz phrases these leeches use. CEO Sateya Nadella confirmed earlier in the year that AI “writes” around 20-30% of the code at Microsoft. The fact that software engineering roles were reduced at some of Microsoft’s office locations, reveals some anecdotal evidence of AI impacting positions (and that is only going to accelerate as executives find ways to choose AI over people in order to reduce expenses like Duolingo’s CEO).
This reminds me of when corporate America willingly chose to mortgage the future (what we are witnessing in recent times where little is now actually manufactured in the U.S.) when they offshored manufacturing (and later service) overseas in order to reduce the expense part of the balance sheet. I’m not entirely against the use of AI/ML. The tech is useful for things like parsing (think how much better translation could be), rapid prototyping, for enhancing/upscaling photos and video, for cleaning up old audio, for eliminating those simple/redundant tasks, etc. Where I draw the line is how executives see it as a quick way to reduce headcounts to bare minimums (where the ones remaining have to do a lot more at the same pay/no extra benefits) and try to rephrase it as “reprioritizing for continued success”.
How about executives and senior management reducing their already obsene levels of compensation? (reminder, many of these folks receive well over 7-figure USD on top of other forms including ESOP’s and RSU’s); they’ve long gamed the system to convince you that they are worth being paid this much with golden parachutes in the event they screw the pooch with poor decisions.
As a relatively longtime MSFT shareholder, I’m taking my own old advice here by divesting at the current high. $500 limit sell order in (don’t care how much higher it goes from there; this is simply one of those moments just like when I exited Facebook where I just want out and similarly, earmarking a percentage of the profits for worthy causes).
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