No, Microsoft is Not Planning to Fire 22,000 People This Month
At least, that's what Microsoft itself claims.
Earlier this week, the internet got filled to the brim with headlines about Microsoft allegedly planning to lay off as many as 22,000 people – 10% of the company's entire workforce – by the end of the month to free up cash to cover the growing costs of its AI initiatives.
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Spread by the HR Digest, the rumor claimed that 5 to 10% of the total staff – roughly 11,000 to 22,000 jobs worldwide – would be phased out over time starting January 18, in small waves. Subsequent reports further alleged that the Azure cloud teams, the Xbox division, and global sales would be among the hardest hit, while AI developers would be spared – a claim one could easily believe considering Microsoft's continuous insistence to bet on artificial intelligence and the plummeting hardware sales.
As believable as it might be, it appears the allegation was not true – at least according to Microsoft's Chief Communications Officer, Frank X. Shaw. In an easy-to-miss Twitter comment, Shaw stated that the rumor was "100 percent made up/speculative/wrong," suggesting the company is not planning to carry out any mass layoffs in January, while still leaving open the possibility that cuts could arrive later in line with the HR Digest's sources.
If the cuts do indeed materialize, even at the lowest estimates, they are set to become the largest wave of firings Microsoft has seen in quite some time, exceeding the company's 10,000-worker purge in early 2023.
They would also be more extensive than any of the three rounds of layoffs carried out last year, including the July wave that resulted in roughly 9,000 job cuts, the cancellation of numerous game projects, and the closure of several game studios.
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