Microsoft offers 60,000 employees buyouts before Wednesday earnings as capex matches its $35.8 billion profit

A quarter of Microsoft gets an exit offer

On Monday, October 26, chief people officer Amy Coleman told about 60,000 Microsoft▲+1.22% — Microsoft, up 1.22 percent today employees they can take the money and leave ¹. The Voluntary Exit Offer covers staff at internal level 70 and below↗, a band reaching general managers and some vice presidents, on participating teams in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom; data-center, sales and marketing workers are excluded ¹.

Coleman framed it as "a new choice to make that transition now with support↗." Takers get terms similar to standard severance, a deadline in early December and a year-end exit ².

That pool is about a quarter of a workforce that stood at 223,000 on June 30, down from 228,000 a year earlier and before July's 4,800 cuts; the company shed more than 15,000 jobs across 2025 ³. Microsoft says the offer is not a signal it needs fewer people, and not a replacement for layoffs ³.

Capital spending has caught the profit line

The June quarter was the first in which Microsoft's cash capital spending matched its net income: $35.8 billion on each side ⁴⁷. Net property and equipment climbed from $205 billion to $313 billion in a year ⁴.

Chief financial officer Amy Hood has guided September-quarter spending above $50 billion including lease accounting↗ ⁵, inside a reported $190 billion capital plan for 2026 ⁶. Gross margin, 71% in late 2023, closed June at 67%, with Xbox content and services revenue down 10% and Windows OEM and devices down 7% ⁴⁷.

The Inference charted that crossover on October 23; the buyout is the page after it.

Wall Street's targets and the memo's arithmetic

The same Monday morning, the brokerages Oppenheimer and Truist▲+0.86% — Truist, up 0.86 percent today raised their targets to $625 from $570 and to $600 from $575, both arguing that capacity, not demand, is what caps Azure, against a $678 billion contracted backlog up 84% in a year ⁴⁸.

Consensus for Wednesday sits at $90.75 billion of revenue and $4.72 of earnings per share ⁸. Investing.com's InvestingPro models put fair value at $564.21, 7.4% above a $526.50 stock already within 4% of its record ⁹.

The memo has its own math: May's retirement pilot drew about 30% of 8,750 eligible employees at a $900 million charge↗, near $350,000 an exit, and the same share here would book over $6 billion ³. Microsoft told the Seattle news site GeekWire it expects a much smaller share ³.

Wednesday sets the tab

Results land after the close on Wednesday, October 28, and the release may carry the offer's first cost estimate, as April's did for the retirement program ³. Hold the capex guide and the 44–45% currency-neutral Azure growth target against it ⁵. The demand got a $625 price target; the cost of that demand got a December deadline ⁵.