It has been claimed that Microsoft is preparing for a new wave of layoffs. Although there is no official statement from the company yet, according to information provided by sources close to the matter, the layoffs will cover less than 2.5 percent of the total number of employees. For Microsoft, which has a workforce of approximately 228 thousand people, this rate means thousands of employees leaving the company. The company last went through a large-scale downsizing in July 2025, covering approximately 4 percent of the global workforce.
According to the claim, new layoffs will be spread across different units of the company. However, it is stated that the biggest impact will be felt in the sales and consultancy teams. In addition, it is stated that the Xbox organization may also be significantly affected by layoffs. The fact that Microsoft has previously restructured the gaming side in different periods causes the claims regarding this department to attract attention.
Developments on the Xbox side attract attention
One of the sections that stood out in the claims was Xbox. Microsoft recently increased the prices of Xbox consoles for the third time in a year and cited rising component costs as the reason for this decision. The new dismissal allegations that are now on the agenda strengthen the evaluations that the company is working on different steps to reduce costs in the gaming department. However, there is no confirmed statement by Microsoft on this subject, and the available information is based on sources transferred from within the company.
It seems that recent similar decisions in the technology sector are not limited to Microsoft. Large technology companies such as Google, Meta and Amazon have also reorganized their organizational structures in recent years and downsized some teams. In addition, companies’ investment priorities are increasingly shifting to artificial intelligence infrastructures. In particular, expenditures on high-performance data centers, advanced server systems and artificial intelligence accelerators have begun to take a larger share in the capital investments of technology giants.
Microsoft is among the companies that have significantly increased their investments in artificial intelligence recently. In addition to the investments made within the scope of the Azure cloud platform and OpenAI collaboration, Copilot services continue to gain a wider place in the company’s product ecosystem. In addition, Microsoft management has stated in past statements that Copilot and artificial intelligence-supported agents can perform some tasks more efficiently, so the need for certain positions may decrease over time.
Claims about the company’s new layoff plan have not yet been officially confirmed. Despite this, it seems that human resource planning is also being reshaped as artificial intelligence investments in the technology sector accelerate. What path Microsoft will follow in this process and the scope of the alleged downsizing will become clear with possible statements from the company.