Microsoft is saying goodbye to approximately 6,000 employees worldwide, almost 3% of its global workforce, in its largest round of employment cuts since the beginning of 2023.
The measure occurs when the $ 3.3 billion technological giant seeks to administer the growing financial pressure of its aggressive investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, despite offering strong quarterly results and robust growth in its cloud computing division, Azure.
The dismissals will affect staff in multiple areas of the business, including LinkedIn and Xbox, since the company undergoes what it described as “the necessary organizational changes to better position the company for success in a dynamic market.”
Microsoft for the last time in a world position of 228,000 full -time employees in June 2023, with around 55% based in the United States. The current round of job losses is expected to be official quantified by the company, affect about 6,000 roles worldwide.
This marks the greatest restructuring since Microsoft reduced 10,000 positions, almost 5% of its workforce in early 2023, when the technological sector was broadly withdrew after the rapid dation of the rise of the era of the pandemic.
While Microsoft’s latest financial results exceeded market expectations, promoted by strong performance in its Azure cloud division, the company has been dealing with the reduction margins. The profitability of Microsoft Cloud fell to 69% in the quarter that ended in March, below 72% of the previous year, a decrease attributed to the growing infrastructure costs linked to the implementation of artificial intelligence.
The company has allocated a record of $ 80 billion in capital expenses for the current financial year, much of the same aimed at the expansion of data centers to support AI applications and address capacity bottlenecks.
Analysts say that employment cuts reflect Microsoft’s attempt to closely administer its duration of the final result in this investment period. Gil Luria, a Davonson analyst, said: “We believe that every year Microsoft invests at the current levels, it would need to reduce staff by at least 10,000 to compensate for the highest depression levels due to their capital expenses.”
Despite employment losses, Microsoft is still one of the most important players strategically in the global technological panorama. Under the CEO Satya Nadella, the company has positioned itself at the forefront of AI, with significant investments in OpenAi, the chatgpt manufacturer and narrow integration of generative tools of AI in the software ecosystem.
Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft has become a technology leader with AI with cloud feeding. But as competition intensifies and infrastructure costs are triggered, the company now faces the challenge of maintaining innovation while maintaining the margins under control, and it is clear that the management of the numbers of the workforce is a key part of that act of balance.
Jamie Young
Jamie is a senior reporter of Business Matters, who brings more than a decade of experience in commercial reports of the United Kingdom. Jamie has a business administration title and participates regularly in conferences and industry workshops. When he does not inform about the last business development, Jamie is passionate about the mentoring of promising journalists and businessmen to inspire the next generation of business leaders.
