Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to high-level U.S. employees as capital spending goes to AI

Microsoft is planning to offer voluntary buyouts to some U.S. employees. 

The move comes as the company shifts more capital spending toward data centers to meet the demands of generative AI models. 

The buyouts will be offered to approximately 7% of U.S. employees, CNBC reported, citing an unnamed source. The retirement program is being offered to workers at the senior director level whose years of employment and age add up to 70 or higher. 

Last year, Microsoft lowered costs with multiple rounds of layoffs. In June, the company had nearly 230,000 employees worldwide, with 125,000 in the U.S.