said it would eliminate 10 000 jobs and take a US$1.2-billion charge as its cloud computing customers dissect their spending and the company braces for potential recession.
The news is particularly dramatic for Microsoft, a software maker heavily invested in generative artificial intelligence that represents an industry bright spot.In a note to employees, CEO Satya Nadella said the layoffs, affecting less than 5% of the workforce, would conclude by the end of March, with notifications beginning Wednesday.
Nadella said customers wanted to “optimise their digital spend to do more with less” and “exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one”. Another company serving enterprises, Palantir Technologies, said this week that reducing cloud spending was a top-10 priority of its customers.