After laying off 6K employees in May, Microsoft plans to cut thousands more jobs globally

Microsoft is planning to cut thousands of jobs, primarily in sales, as part of its broader efforts to streamline operations and intensify its focus on artificial intelligence.

According to a Bloomberg report, which cited people familiar with the matter, the cuts are expected to be announced early next month, following the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year.

While sales roles will be significantly impacted, the cuts will extend beyond that department, and the timing may change.

Microsoft has ramped up its investments in AI in recent years, aiming to solidify its position and maintain a competitive edge as other companies across industries accelerate the integration of AI into their products and services.

For this fiscal year, the tech giant has planned a capital expenditure of US$80 billion (S$102.8 billion), with most of it aimed at expanding data centres to ease capacity bottlenecks for AI services.

Microsoft’s planned terminations would follow a previous round of layoffs in May, which impacted 6,000 employees, particularly those in product and engineering roles.

It remains unclear how many roles in Singapore will be affected this time around. Vulcan Post has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

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