Microsoft has offered voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees, about 27% of its global workforce, AP reports, as it spends heavily on AI. Chief People Officer Amy Coleman wrote that the offer was open to eligible employees in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, and that "The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us." The company had about 223,000 full-time employees at the end of June and said in July it was cutting 4,800 jobs. An offer is not a layoff: how many people accept is not yet known.

The post, a short text calling it "25% voluntary buyout layoffs" and "an absolute bombshell," drew about 8,200 upvotes and 1,900 comments in a 1.1-million-member community. The top replies talk about anxiety over layoffs; one argues that if other big tech companies follow, AI taking jobs stops being speculation, another proposes limits on buybacks and executive bonuses after mass layoffs, and several former Microsoft employees say they ended up happier after leaving.