Microsoft is cutting thousands of employees across the US

Microsoft Corp. said it will cut 6,000 workers across the company in an effort to reduce management layers.

Planned reductions across the company amount to less than 3% of total headcount, a spokesperson said.

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” the spokesperson said.

Microsoft, which employed 228,000 people in June 2024, deploys periodic layoffs, often to reorient its headcount toward priority areas. The company laid off 10,000 people in January 2023, including personnel at the HoloLens augmented reality headset unit and other hardware projects.

The company has been under pressure in recent years to keep a lid on costs amid massive spending on the data centers that power artificial intelligence services and the Azure cloud-computing unit. Microsoft has said it's on track to spend about $80 billion this fiscal year on the server farms.

CNBC reported the news earlier.