India, July 4 -- Microsoft announced a substantial reduction of approximately 9,000 jobs in July 2025, marking its second major round of layoffs this year. This latest cut impacts under 4% of its global workforce and follows an earlier reduction of 6,000 roles in May. Combined, these actions bring Microsoft's total workforce reduction to over 15,000 employees in the first half of 2025.

The company is committing enormous capital to artificial intelligence, with an estimated USD 80 billion earmarked for fiscal year 2025 alone, primarily for building and upgrading data centres to support AI models. This massive investment pressures operating margins, making workforce reductions a way to reallocate funds from salaries to AI infrastructure. M...