Microsoft

Meta will lay off 8,000 workers while Microsoft is offering buyouts to 8,750 people, a first for the Windows maker.

Meta is laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10 percent of its workforce, the company has said as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires.

On Thursday, the company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled.

Also on Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its US employees.

The software giant plans to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or 7 percent of its US workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorised to speak about it publicly.

While an alternative to the sudden layoffs removing tech workers from peers like Meta and Oracle, the savings are likely tied to a similar industry upheaval that is requiring huge spending on the costs of artificial intelligence.

Meta has already warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to the range of $162bn to $169bn — driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the AI experts it has been hiring at eye-popping pay levels.

This week, Meta also said it was breaking ground on an AI-optimised data centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a $1bn investment and its 28th data centre in the US.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives welcomed Meta’s cuts in a note to investors on Thursday.

He said he sees it as part of a strategy of using AI tools to “automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining productivity, driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure”.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington state, has spent billions of dollars on operating an ever-expanding global network of data centres that power cloud computing services, AI systems and its own suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.

CNBC reported earlier on Thursday on a memo from Microsoft’s chief people officer, Amy Coleman, announcing the voluntary retirement plan.

“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” Coleman wrote, according to CNBC.

Meta stock fell 2.3 percent on Thursday, while Microsoft stock ended the day down 3.97 percent.

April 4 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1841, President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia after serving one month in office. He was the ninth President of the United States, and the first to die in office. He was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler, the first person to occupy the office without being elected to it.

In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

In 1887, Susanna Madora Salter was elected as the first female mayor in the United States — in Argonia, Kan.

In 1933, the USS Akron, a U.S. Navy airship, is destroyed during a major storm off the coast of New Jersey. The tragedy claimed the lives of 73 of the 76 crewmen and passengers.

In 1949, representatives of 12 nations gathered in Washington to sign the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the NATO alliance.

In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tenn. He was 39.

In 1975, Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off on its inaugural mission.

In 1991, Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and six others were killed in the midair collision of a chartered airplane and a helicopter that was inspecting the plane’s landing gear near Philadelphia.

In 2005, the president of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, officially resigned. He had been driven out by a coup a month earlier.

In 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago film critic Roger Ebert died after a long battle with cancer. He was 70.

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

In 2014, the United Nations announced that the millionth refugee from war-torn Syria had entered Lebanon.

In 2017, Syrian government forces kill dozens of civilians in a chemical attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

In 2019, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reversed its policy denying the children of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents to be blessed as infants and baptized as members.

In 2024, a copy of Action Comics No. 1, which introduced Superman to the world in 1938, became the world’s most expensive comic book when it fetched $6 million at auction.

File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI