Microsoft offers voluntary exit buyout to about 60,000 employees

Microsoft announced a voluntary exit offer on Oct. 26, 2026, covering about 60,000 employees, roughly 25 percent of its total workforce, in a staff memo from Chief People Officer Amy Coleman.

The memo framed the offer as a new choice for employees considering a future outside the company. Coleman said the program gives eligible employees a new choice to transition with support. She also said it lets organizations adapt their workforce to changing needs.

Participation varies by organization based on business priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs. Some organizations are not providing the offer. Coleman said some organizations are providing the offer and some are not, depending on business priorities and workforce needs.

The offer covers employees at level 70 and below in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Eligible workers must decide by early December whether to leave. Whether Xbox or its studios are participating is unclear because some Microsoft organizations have opted out of the offer.

Microsoft sent the voluntary exit offer to a pool of around 223,000 employees company-wide. Shacknews describes the buyout as offering financial support and career planning resources to the employee pool.

The terms are similar to Microsoft’s existing severance packages. They include financial support. They include career planning resources. A Microsoft spokesperson compared the terms to existing severance packages in comments to Business Insider.

This is Microsoft’s second voluntary layoff program in 2026. In spring, the Voluntary Retirement Program reached 9,000 veteran employees, and about a third accepted, according to Business Insider. The spring program allowed veteran employees to take severance and certain vested stock options early.

Microsoft laid off around 9,000 employees during 2025. The 2025 reductions came before the voluntary exit offer and the ongoing Xbox restructuring described in the same report.

Xbox is in the middle of a reset announced earlier in 2026. The reset plans 3,200 job cuts. It involves a major internal restructure of many first-party studios.

The gaming division set a target of 3,200 layoffs by June 2027 under its current Xbox reset. The 3,200-layoff goal is part of the gaming division’s current reset of Xbox.

Since the reset, Double Fine has become independent. Compulsion Games has become independent. Undead Labs has become independent.

Arkane Lyon and Ninja Theory face uncertain futures. The studio changes occurred as part of Xbox’s broader internal restructure following the reset announcement. Microsoft’s generative AI spending coincided with the voluntary buyout announcement. Eurogamer, citing CNBC, links the buyout to Microsoft’s attempt to balance generative AI spending alongside headcount reductions.