Microsoft to trim thousands of jobs in next round of job cuts

Job cuts will include positions for sale and consultancy, as well as staff in the Xbox Games division, it reported. Business Insider , quoting people familiar with the plans. These individuals sought to remain anonymous, as plans have not yet been made public.

Job cuts are expected to be announced next week, though the timely decision may change, said those who are familiar with the issue. Some employees whose roles will be eliminated may be offered alternative positions immediately, according to one of the sources.

The rate of these cuts is expected to be smaller than the labour force cuts made by Microsoft last year.

In line with past practice, Microsoft often implements job cuts around the start of the fiscal year on 1 July. In 2025, the technology giant undertook two important rounds of job cuts, eliminating 6,000 positions in May and 9,000 in July.

The July 2025 cut represented about 4% of Microsoft's total workforce at the time.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a voluntary retirement programme for American staff. The offer was aimed at employees at a rate of 67, with a combined age and years of service.

About 7% of Microsoft's US workforce of 125,000 were qualified, representing nearly 9,000 people.

Recent job cuts come as Microsoft continues its efforts to control operational costs, even though it reported higher revenues for its latest financial quarter. For the quarter that ended on March 31, 2026 (the third quarter of the 2026 fiscal year), Microsoft reported revenues of $82.9 billion, an 18% increase of 70 billion registered in the same quarter of last year, writes in a text published by the U.S. Yahoo, broadcast Periscope.

Operational revenues reached $38.4 billion, rising by 20%, while net income was $38 billion, representing a 23% year-on-year increase.

Microsoft Culud's revenues increased by 29% to $54.5 billion, and the company's remaining commercial performance increased by 99% to $627 billion.

Microsoft said its IA business reached an annual income rate of 37 billion, 123% more compared to last year. In the Business Production and Process segment, revenues increased by 17%, including an increase of $3.7 billion, or 17%, in Microsoft 365 Commercial products and services.

In May 2026, the United Kingdom's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) opened a strategic investigation into market status in Microsoft's business software ecosystem. The investigation will consider whether Microsoft's position affects the client's choice and competition, in particular viewing practices as packaged products and interaction.

"Microsofft will cut thousands of jobs in the next round of job cuts"was created and first published by Verdict, a brand owned by GlobalData.

1. July 1st marks the beginning of a new fiscal year for Microsoft, and has usually announced job cuts around this time.
2. Previous reports have shown possible employee cuts in Microsoft's Xbox division.
3. The sense of retail for MSFT in Stocktwits has increased since the middle of last month and was 'opsional' since the beginning of Wednesday.

Microsoft Corp shares. It grew by about 1% in overnight trading before Wednesday's opening, after a report said the Windows producer is planning another round of job cuts that next week to curb costs.

Microsoft could fire about 2.5% of the workforce, Business Insider reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the issue. The company had nearly 228,000 full-time employees since June 2025, according to a document delivered to the SEC last year, implying that some 5,700 jobs could be affected.

Look what over 10 million investors are talking about. Take the Daily Rip Stockwits for what you're currently looking at is a retail sale, for free in your mailbox.

The movement could be reported that next week, July 1st, marking the start of Microsoft's new fiscal year, although time may still change. Some affected workers are also expected to be offered new roles immediately, the report said.

Job cuts in Microsoft

Among major technology companies, Microsoft has been one of the most aggressive in cutting jobs, describing job cuts as part of routine organisational restructuring amid changing industry dynamics.

Following significant labour force cuts in 2023 and 2024, along with smaller cuts targeted afterwards, the company announced in June 2025 that it would eliminate 6,000 roles, or about 4% of its workforce, mainly in the production and engineering teams.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a voluntary retirement programme. About 7% of Microsoft's US workforce of 125,000, or nearly 9,000 employees, were qualified, according to Business Insider.

About a third of qualified employees accepted the acquisition, in line with expectations, according to the report.

Job cuts in the company's game division had taken place continuously, especially since senior director Asa Sharma took over the post of Xbox CEO in February. In a memo sent to Xbox employees last month and published in the media, Sharma described that it plans to"set business", which he described as"in a healthy state".

MSFT shares drop

This development comes during a difficult period for Microsoft on the stock market. MSFT shares dropped by 23% in the first six months of the year, marking their worst semi-year performance since 2000 and the lowest performance between Magnifecent Seven shares in the first half of 2026.

Microsoft has been put under pressure due to a wider software share sale, major capital spending plans and increased competition in artificial intelligence from Google, Anthropic and OpenAI.

MSFT Ready, Analyst's Viewpoint

However, the sale rate for MSFT in Stocktwits has increased since the middle of last month and was 'optimistic' since the beginning of Wednesday.

" $ M SFT One of those shares you buy and you don't look back for another 12 months. The market rarely presents games like this with such a high asymmetric reward. PT in December of $600 is absolutely possible. Patience will be rewarded", a businessman wrote.

On Wall Street, 53 of 56 analysts estimate the action as 'Bley' or higher, and the other three value it as 'Keep', according to Koyfin. Their average price, targeted at 561.11, means a 50% increase from the final closure of the action.

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Read further: Michael Burry is dropping NV DA, AMAT, SOXX é views the large cost of chips in Korea as "final beginning"

Yuvrej Malik has no position in any of the shares mentioned in this article. The contents of the StockTwitts news team are only for information purposes and is not intended to be investment advice. For more information, see our editorial policy. This article was first published in StockTwits.

June 30th (Reuters) - Microsoft is planning to cut below 2.5% of the workforce in the latest round of layoffs that could be announced as early as next week, Business Insider reported on Tuesday, citing sources.

Reuters couldn't verify the report immediately.

American companies have continued to reduce the number of employees in recent months, with a new wave of layoffs in the sectors of technology, media and finance, while firms are curbing costs while investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Here are some details:

• Job cuts will affect thousands of roles, including sales and consultancy, as well as jobs in the Xbox Games division, the Business Institute report said.

• Microsoft declined to comment on the report.

• Microsoft had approximately 228,000 full-time employees since 30 June 2025, according to a document submitted to the SEC last year.

• Xbox, which increased the prices of game consoles worldwide, citing a global crisis of deepening components, is planning large job cuts and significant cuts in marketing and other budgets, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.

• Windows producer is also considering opportunities for its Xbox Games unit, including a possible division or restructuring as a entirely owned branch, The Information reported earlier in June.

• In July 2025, the company said it would fire nearly 4% of the workforce, at one of the largest layoffs in recent years.

• Throughout the technology sector, Meta announced plans this year to cut 10% of the workforce, and Amazon presented plans to eliminate approximately 16,000 jobs at a global level.

(report from Bipasha Day in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Zinmay Day in Mexico City; The editor from Vijay Kichere, Rasti Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Cuts from Microsoft (MSFT) to Xbox could lead to the closure of at least five studios, new companies and unions.

OpenAI presented a confidential draft of the initial public offering (IPO) at the US Papers and Stock Exchanges Commission earlier this month, employed a financial team and targeted the third or fourth quarter of this year. This plan was quickly broken.

A significant decline in the value of space exploration technologies (SPCX), combined with investors' growing scepticism if artificial intelligence companies (IA) can support their high promises, forced OpenAI to return to the planning phase, and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) shares felt every particle of that revelation.

The New York Times reports that OpenAI is now seriously considering a postponement until 2027, mainly because its advisers refuse to make the public company unless it enters with an estimated $1 trillion.

With $82 billion currently, OpenAI is close enough to smell it, but not close enough to believe in it, and even at the time of its initial appearance, the company did not make promises for a close list.

What makes this especially unpleasant to Microsoft is that Anthropic, the main rival of the OpenAI, already stands at a value of $95 billion and is preparing for its initial public bid (IPO). Microsoft holds a significant stake in OpenAI and has combined its models into the very structure of Azure, Copilot and its software package for companies. So anyway OpenAI walks, Microsoft walks with it.

An initial unstable public offer with a decoupled assessment may invite just the kind of noise from shareholders that transform a strong partnership into a complex one. However, MSFT shares won 5.7% within the day on Friday, June 26th, despite visible improvement over the past month, making its way forward valid to be examined much more carefully.

About Microsoft shares

Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft is one of the largest technology companies on the planet, which runs operations at remote computing, software at the workplace, artificial intelligence, games, research and professional networking.

The company has a market capitalisation of $2.77 trillion and owns some of the most popular technology francs, including Windows, Azure, Microsoft 365, Xbox, LinkedIn, Github and Copilot, which serve millions of consumers and businesses worldwide every day.

But the size has not kept the storm clouds apart. Microsoft's shares have dropped by 25.68% over the past 52 weeks and have dropped by 23.79% so far in 2026, with investors chewing nails on artificial intelligence levels and signs of slowing the growth of the clown.

As far as the assessment is concerned, MSFT shares are currently traded for 22.18 times the price ratio on previously regulated profits, not- GAP, which is a discount to both the industry's standard and to the company's average five-year double. This descent eases the decline.

Furthermore, Microsoft has increased its dividend for 21 years in a row and now pays $3.64 per share each year, which translates into an productivity of 0. 98%. Next payment of US$ 0.19 per share is scheduled to take place on September 10th for registered shareholders since 20 August.

Microsoft exceeds Third quarter profits

Microsoft released the results of the third quarter of the fiscal year 2026 on April 29th and passed the high level of Wall Street with excessive space. Revenues rose by 18.3% year-on-year (YOY) to $82.89 billion, exceeding analysts' estimates of $8.39 billion. Action gains (EPS) increased 23.4% from the previous year to $4.27, exceeding the $4.06 Wall Street forecast.

In addition, Microsoft Culud spent $54 billion in revenue, marking a 29% increase compared to last year. The company's artificial intelligence business improved even more, with the annual income rate exceeding $37 billion, marking an increase of 123% compared to last year.

The main numbers came with a real receipt attached. The gross margin dropped to 68%, while Microsoft invested money in the IA infrastructure, and greater use of IA products further contracted margins. Efficiency gains in Azure and Microsoft 365 Commercial Cloud covered some of this weakness.

Capital spending, along with financial rents, amounted to a total of $33.9 billion for the quarter. In the balance, cash and their equivalents stood at $32.1 billion on March 31st, up from $30.2 billion on June 30, 2025.

Looking forward, the management has oriented the revenues of the fourth quarter of 2026 fiscal year to $88.7 billion to $88.8 billion, pointing to an increase of 13% to 15%, and signalled plans to increase capital spending over $40 billion, while the company is rushing to bring more capacity to function.

Capital spending for the entire year 2026 is expected to reach approximately $190 billion, with rising memory costs causing a considerable share of the damage. Nearly $25 billion of this figure is directly linked to the higher prices of components.

On the side of the profits, analysts expect the profits for action (EPS) for the fourth quarter of the 2026 fiscal year to increase by 15.3% year-on-year to $4.21. The financial outcome for the entire fiscal year 2026 could increase by 22.9% from last year to $16,76, and the fiscal year 2027 could bring another 15% increase to $19.28.

What do analysts expect for Microsoft shares?

Despite the unstable performance of shares and the possible postponement of OpenAI's initial public offering, Wall Street is not losing patience against Microsoft.

Its action holds a general assessment"Strong Freedom"by 49 analysts covering it. Among them, 41 estimate it as"Strongler", three call it a"Moderate"and five prefer to stay with a"holding".

The average price of $562.32 represents a potential growth of 49.9%. Meanwhile, the $680 high price target implies a profit of 84.5% from current levels.

On the date of publication, Aanchal Sogandh had no position (not directly or indirectly) in any of the valuable letters mentioned in this article. All the information and information in this article are for information purposes only.

Microsoft shares closed to the lowest level of 52 weeks on Thursday, closing what appears to be the worst start of the year for the company since 2000, while investors are becoming increasingly impatient at the cost of building artificial intelligence.

By the beginning of Thursday's trade, the shares had lost more than 24% of their value so far in 2026, Barron's reported. Compared to its competitors S&P 500 per month to this day, only 18 companies have performed worse, with Microsoft falling by 21.6% in June - a drop MarketWatch described, citing the Dow Jones market data as potentially the biggest drop in the history of the stock.

The guilty, analysts say, are capital expenditures. The last quarter saw capital spending increase by 63% from last year to $38 billion -- an increase that came at a direct cost for the flow of free money, which contracted 10%, according to Benzinga. With the projected expenses of 2026 estimated at approximately $190 billion, the capital fund available for the return of shareholders - through stock purchases and divisions - shrinks accordingly.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives described the frustration of investors in clear terms. In a note quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Ives seized the break with a vivid image: "Microsofft and Meta are being treated by investors as if wearing winter jackets for the beach during the summer" - a reflection, he argued, growing impatience with the costs of building artificial intelligence that have not yet translated into visible growth.

Tension is evident because Microsoft's basic business continues to have good performance. Over the past eight quarters, the company has marked continued growth in revenues in the annual rate of 16%-18%, steadily exceeding analysts' expectations for profits. However, when Microsoft released its latest quarterly results, the prospect of spending dominated the conversation and shares dropped by nearly 4% in the following days, according to the media.

Microsoft is not alone. As Quartz reported earlier on the scale of the artificial intelligence weapons race, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google together plan to spend approximately $650 billion on artificial intelligence infrastructure in 2026 - a sum representing an increase of approximately 60% compared to their combined 2025 expenses and is without modern precedent in its concentration and speed. Meta and Google, owned by Alphabet, have faced a similar review by investors for their expenses.

In the short term, capital seems to be moving towards parts of artificial intelligence trade with more tangible returns in the short term - leading companies of semi-reference and memory, according to the Journal.