Microsoft is planning to lay off thousands more employees, report says

Thousands of Microsoft sales employees are expected to be laid off next month, according to a new report — during a year in which the company invested heavily in AI.

The software giant is looking to make cuts at the end of its fiscal year in July, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The cuts are expected to hit sales departments heavily, but not exclusively. In June 2024, Microsoft had 45,000 employees in sales and marketing.

Hints first came in March, when the company axed almost 2,000 workers for performance reasons. In April, the writing was on the wall for the sales department: Bloomberg reported Microsoft would rely more on third-party firms to sell to small and mid-sized clients. 

A month later, it laid off almost 7,000 employees, or 3% of its entire workforce, with cuts coming mostly from product and engineering positions. At that point, Microsoft said it was working to reduce layers of management and adjust its structure amid ongoing platform shifts.  

Microsoft stock hit an intraday record just two weeks ago, on June 5, its highest point since 2024. That followed a series of announcements that signaled how deeply AI is baked into the company's business. 

Earlier this year, Microsoft committed to spending $80 billion in fiscal 2025 — most of it on AI-enabled data centers. That’s a figure that suggests CEO Satya Nadella sees AI as Microsoft’s cloud moment all over again. And the market seems to agree.  

The marketing department, or what’s left of it, might not. 

—Shannon Carroll contributed to this article.