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微软开始掏钱请员工主动考虑离职。
约6万人有资格接受这份邀请，超过公司全球员工的四分之一。
这次不用等到临近退休，也不要求绩效不好。符合条件的员工可以拿着补偿，在年底离开公司。颇有点迫不及待想多甩掉一些人的感觉。
连微软寄予厚望的Copilot团队，也在覆盖范围内。遥想今年春天，其他部门暂停招聘的时候，Copilot团队还在招人。
微软仍然很能挣钱，过去一个财年净利润达到1337亿美元。但随着AI投入扩大，公司预计2026年的资本开支将达到约1750亿美元，外界因此把这轮离职计划与控制成本、为AI投资腾挪资金联系起来。
微软掏钱，请你考虑离职
在微软上班，现在可能会遇到这样一道选择题：公司给你一笔钱，你愿不愿意辞职？
北京时间10月26日晚，微软推出新一轮自愿离职计划，美国、加拿大、英国和印度的约6万名员工有资格参加。
以今年6月底22.3万名全球员工计算，超过四分之一的人，都可以考虑拿钱离开。
6万人是什么概念？Meta去年底的全部员工还不到8万人，微软这份离职邀请的覆盖人数，相当于四分之三个Meta。
再看看同行最近的裁员动作。亚马逊在去年末至今年初，分两轮裁减约3万个企业岗位；Meta今年5月裁减约8000人。
微软最终会有多少人接受邀请还不知道，但仅看符合条件的人数，已经超过这两家公司几轮裁员的总和。
这次发出裁员邀请的门槛已经降低了很多。员工不需要先在绩效考核中垫底，也不用达到一定年龄或工龄。符合条件的团队中，总经理和部分拥有副总裁头衔的员工，同样可以报名。
半年前，微软还没有把范围放得这么大。
今年4月，公司首次推出自愿退休计划，要求员工的年龄与在微软工作的年数相加达到70，而且只面向美国高级总监及以下职级的员工。
比如，一个50岁、在微软工作20年的人，就跨过了这道门槛。约8750人符合条件，主要是在公司待了多年的老员工。
这招真有人买账。约三成符合条件的员工接受了退休方案。微软首席人力资源官艾米·科尔曼后来透露，这让公司7月需要强制裁员的人数少了一些。
如今，年龄和工龄要求取消了，适用的地区和职级范围也扩大了。
那这笔钱，究竟有多少？
根据美国员工的方案，补偿与职级、工龄有关。多数员工的工资补偿上限约为9个月，部分高职级员工的方案则包括一整年的工资。此外，还有一定期限内股票继续归属等安排。
符合条件的员工会收到自己的具体方案，可以考虑到12月第一周，接受后安排在年底离开。对原本就打算跳槽的人来说，这或许正好是个机会，公司愿意出钱帮自己迈出这一步。
麻烦的是，拒绝这份邀请，也不代表以后不会被裁。
今年7月，微软宣布裁员4800人，9月又裁减数百人。公司明确表示，自愿离职不会取代强制裁员。现在可以主动拿钱走，留下来则仍然可能遇到下一轮裁员。员工要作出选择，多少有点赌的成分。
这份邀请还触及了微软最受重视的AI业务。除了财务、人力资源、Xbox、Windows等部门，Copilot相关员工也在覆盖范围内。
.Copilot怎么也上了名单？
就在今年3月，微软冻结部分云业务和北美销售团队的招聘时，Copilot团队还在招人。
Copilot的生意也确实做起来了。截至6月底，Microsoft 365 Copilot的付费席位超过3000万个，当季净增席位超过上一季度的两倍。汇丰承诺采购20万个席位，毕马威则将部署范围扩大到全球超过27.6万名专业人员。这些企业买起AI来，一买就是几十万人的份。
当然，Copilot的“战绩”背后，是微软不遗余力地推广。
微软把Copilot加入Windows、Office和Edge，借助这些产品原有的庞大用户群推广它，省去了从头寻找用户的麻烦。微软还花钱打广告。据媒体报道，2025年，Copilot的电视广告投入就达到约6000万美元。
可Copilot就像是一个尴尬的关系户，一直带着点“德不配位”的气质。
纳德拉曾在Edge浏览器里，让企业版Copilot帮忙处理正在浏览的公开网页，结果它没办成。纳德拉随后给负责相关业务的高管发去一封不满的邮件。
今年3月，公司宣布整合面向消费者和企业的Copilot，把产品体验、平台、办公应用和模型的开发联系得更紧密。纳德拉在公告中提出，要让这些产品形成一个更简单、更完整的系统。
一些原先加上去的Copilot入口，也要拿掉了。同月，Windows团队宣布，将从截图工具、照片、记事本等应用入手，减少“不必要的Copilot入口”。
到了9月，微软给出了更大的改动。
改版之前，用户打开Word写报告，Copilot在旁边帮忙。改版之后，用户可以直接在Copilot里生成、修改报告，不用另开Word。Excel表格和PPT也一样，微软把这些办公工具搬进了Copilot。
纳德拉称，要把Copilot做成“工作的操作系统”。这个说法的野心不小。
但AI的野心往往伴随着支出的膨胀。
微软在7月财报电话会上提到，Microsoft 365 Copilot使用量增加，加上公司持续投入改善产品质量，使其所属业务部门的毛利率略有下降。
实际上，微软和它的同行，都得为越来越大的AI开支找办法。
为了投AI，大厂都在找钱
微软其实很能挣钱。在截至今年6月底的2026财年，公司净利润达到1337亿美元，同比增长31%。
但它准备花出去的钱，同样惊人。微软预计，2026年的资本开支将达到约1750亿美元，用于数据中心、服务器等基础设施。
也因此，在解读这次6万人裁员邀约的时候，外界认为微软这是在控制成本，为庞大的AI投资提供资金。
这样的猜测不无道理，微软的同行也都在为AI不断找钱。
就在10月26日，Meta公布了一项最高950亿美元的股权融资计划。随后，这个数字又扩大到了975亿美元。按照更新后的安排，公司将推进合计375亿美元的普通股和可转换优先股发行，另计划在后续通过出售股票筹集最多600亿美元。
在这之前，Meta已经借了不少钱。去年10月，公司发行了300亿美元债券，今年4月又发行250亿美元，两笔合计550亿美元。
看看Meta的现金流，就知道它为什么这么积极。
今年第三季度，Meta的经营活动带来327.9亿美元现金，但资本开支达到349.1亿美元，自由现金流因此变成了负21.2亿美元。公司预计，今年全年的资本开支将达到1350亿至1450亿美元。
马斯克也在想办法，只不过这次用上了融资租赁。
同样在10月26日，SpaceX披露了一项本金付款总额约400亿美元的安排。Apollo旗下公司将先买下AI芯片和服务器，再租给SpaceX使用，每份租约从设备交付起持续五年多。公司预计年底前敲定交易，设备交付后的租赁将在2027年上半年开始。
这样一来，SpaceX可以让融资方先出钱买设备，自己在之后几年里陆续付款。算力是要尽快拿到的，至于付款时间最好以后再说。
除了向外筹钱，大厂也在重新安排公司内部的预算。
微软的研发队伍已经在缩小。2026财年，公司产品研发人员从上一年的8万人降到7.7万人，减少了3000人。但同一财年的研发费用仍增长9%，达到355.6亿美元。微软在年报中解释，费用增长主要来自算力、AI人才和数据方面的投入，也包括Xbox业务的减值等费用。
这也让“裁员省钱”变得有些微妙。公司减少了研发人员，整个研发部门花的钱却更多了。微软还要继续开发模型、改进Copilot，即使压缩了部分岗位，这些工作需要的算力和人才也得继续投入。
基础设施扩张同样没有停。微软7月披露，过去一个财年新增了88座数据中心，并计划在两年内将整体容量扩大约一倍。随着更多设备投入运行，公司仍需要人维护这些机房。
所以，这次离职邀请的范围里，有一个值得留意的细节——数据中心团队没有参加这轮计划。
本文由 AI图鉴自动抓取并翻译，版权归原作者所有；如需查看原文请点下方链接。
List of letters
Microsoft started paying employees to consider leaving at their own initiative.
Some 60,000 people are eligible to accept the invitation, more than a quarter of the company ' s global workforce.
This time, there is no need to wait for near retirement, nor does it require poor performance. Eligible employees may leave the company at the end of the year with compensation. It's kind of hard to wait to get rid of some people.
Even the Microsoft team, which has high expectations, is covered. The Copilot team was still recruiting this spring when other departments suspended their recruitment.
Microsoft is still very profitable, with net profits of $133.7 billion for the past fiscal year. With the expansion of AI, however, the company expects that capital expenditure will reach approximately $175 billion in 2026, thereby linking this round of exit plans to contain costs and divert funds for AI investments.
Microsoft will pay. Please consider leaving.
At Microsoft, there might be a choice: would you like to resign?
In the evening of Beijing time, 26 October, Microsoft launched a new voluntary separation scheme, in which some 60,000 employees from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India were eligible.
In terms of 223,000 global staff at the end of June this year, more than a quarter of the population could consider leaving with money.
What is the concept of 60,000 people? Meta had less than 80,000 employees at the end of last year, and Microsoft had covered three quarters of its exit invitation.
And look at the recent staff cuts. At the end of last year and the beginning of the year, the Amazon cut about 30,000 jobs in two rounds; Meta cut about 8,000 in May this year.
It is not known how many people Microsoft will eventually accept the invitation, but the number of eligible individuals alone has exceeded the sum of the two companies in several rounds of downsizing.
The threshold for issuing such an invitation has been considerably lowered. An employee is not required to advance in the performance appraisal, nor to reach a certain age or seniority. The same applies to the general manager and to some of the employees who hold the rank of vice-president.
Six months ago, Microsoft didn't put it that far.
In April this year, for the first time, the company introduced a voluntary retirement scheme requiring employees to reach 70 years of age, plus the number of years of service with Microsoft, and only for United States senior executives and those below the grade level.
For example, a 50-year-old who worked for Microsoft for 20 years crossed that threshold. Some 875 persons were eligible, mainly older employees who had spent many years in the company.
That's a real game. About 30 per cent of eligible staff accepted the retirement programme. Later, Microsoft Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Coleman revealed that this had led to a lower number of company sanctions officers in July.
Today, age and seniority requirements have been eliminated and the applicable regional and grade levels have been expanded.
So how much is this money?
Under the United States employee scheme, compensation is related to grade, length of service. The salary compensation ceiling for most employees is about nine months, while the scheme for some senior employees includes a full year ' s salary. In addition, there are arrangements for the continued attribution of shares for a certain period of time.
Eligible staff will receive their own specific programme, which can be taken into account in the first week of December, after which they are scheduled to leave at the end of the year. This may be an opportunity for those who were going to jump, and companies are willing to pay for this step.
The fact that this invitation was rejected does not mean that it will not be reduced.
In July of this year, Microsoft announced a reduction of 4,800 personnel, and in September, a further reduction of hundreds. The company made it clear that voluntary separation would not replace a strong sanctioner. It is now possible to take the money on its own initiative, and the next round of layoffs is still possible. The employee has to choose a bit of a gambling component.
The invitation also touched on Microsoft's most valued AI business. In addition to the departments of finance, human resources, Xbox, Windows, etc., the relevant employees of Copilot are covered.
Why is Copilot on the list?
As recently as March this year, when Microsoft frozen recruitment for some cloud operations and for the North American sales team, the Copilot team was still recruiting.
Copilot's business is doing it. By the end of June, Microsoft 365 Copilot had more than 30 million paid seats, with a net increase of more than twice that of the previous quarter. HSBC has committed 200,000 seats, while KPMG has expanded its deployment to more than 276,000 professionals globally. These businesses buy AI, they buy hundreds of thousands.
Of course, behind Copilot's “war performance” is Microsoft's relentless promotion.
Microsoft added Copilot to Windows, Office and Edge, promoting it through the vast user base of the products, thus avoiding the trouble of finding users from the beginning. Microsoft also pays for advertising. According to media reports, in 2025, the television advertising input in Copilot amounted to approximately $60 million.
But Copilot is like an awkward relationship, always with a bit of a "dehyde".
Nadra used the Edge browser to get the corporate version of Copilot to help with the public pages that were being viewed, and it failed. Nadra then sent a disgruntled e-mail to the executive responsible for the business.
In March this year, the company announced the integration of copilot for consumers and businesses, linking product experiences, platforms, office applications and model development more closely. In his bulletin, Nadra proposed a simpler and more complete system for these products.
Some of the previously added Copilot entrances were also removed. In the same month, the Windows team announced that the “unnecessary Copilot entrance” would be reduced, starting with the application of screenshot tools, photographs, notebooks, etc.
By September, Microsoft had made greater changes.
Before the revision, the user opens Word's report and Copilot helps. After the revision, the user can generate and modify the report directly in the copilot without opening a separate Word. The same applies to Excel forms and PPT, where Microsoft moved these office tools into Copilot.
Nadra stated that it was to become a “working operating system” for Copilot. This is an ambitious statement.
However, AI's ambitions are often accompanied by an increase in spending.
Microsoft mentioned at the July press conference that the increased use of Microsoft 365 Copilo, coupled with the company ' s sustained investment in improving product quality, had led to a slight decrease in the Māori ratio in its business sector.
Indeed, Microsoft and its counterparts have to find a way for increasing AI spending.
They're all looking for money for AI.
Microsoft actually earns money. In the 2026 fiscal year to the end of June this year, corporate net profits reached $133.7 billion, an increase of 31 per cent over the same period.
But it's about to spend the money, just as amazing. Microsoft expects capital expenditure to reach approximately $175 billion in 2026 for infrastructure such as data centres and servers.
As a result, when interpreting this 60,000-strong downsizing offer, Microsoft was considered to be controlling costs and financing large AI investments.
It makes sense that Microsoft colleagues are looking for money for AI.
Just on 26 October, Meta published a equity financing scheme of up to $95 billion. This figure was subsequently expanded to $97.5 billion. Under the renewed arrangement, the company will advance the issuance of general and convertible priority shares totalling $37.5 billion, with plans to raise up to $60 billion later through stock sales.
Before that, Meta had borrowed a lot of money. In October last year, the company issued $30 billion in bonds, and in April this year it issued another $25 billion, for a total of $55 billion.
Look at Meta's cash flow and see why it's so positive.
In the third quarter of this year, Meta ' s operations brought in $32.79 billion in cash, but capital expenditure amounted to $34.91 billion, making free cash flows negative $2.12 billion. The company expects capital expenditure to reach between $135 billion and $145 billion throughout the year.
Mask is working on it, but this time it's a financial lease.
Also on 26 October, SpaceX disclosed an arrangement totalling approximately $40 billion in principal payments. Apollo Corporation will first buy the AI chip and server and then lease it to SpaceX, each lease for more than five years from the time of delivery of the equipment. The company expects to finalize the transaction by the end of the year and the lease of the equipment upon delivery will commence in the first half of 2027.
As a result, SpaceX allows the financier to buy the equipment first and to make payments on its own for the following years. The calculation is to be obtained as soon as possible and later on, as far as the timing of payments is concerned.
In addition to raising funds from outside, large firms are rearranging their internal budgets.
Microsoft's research and development team is shrinking. In the 2026 fiscal year, the number of corporate product developers fell from 80,000 in the previous year to 77,000, a reduction of 3,000. However, R & D costs increased by 9 per cent in the same fiscal year to $35.56 billion. In its annual report, Microsoft explained that cost increases were mainly due to computing, AI talent and data inputs, and also included impairment costs for the Xbox operation.
This also makes “redundancy savings” somewhat subtle. Companies have reduced their R & D staff and the entire R & D sector has spent more. Microsoft will also continue to develop models and improve the Copilot, and even if some of the jobs have been downsized, the calculus and talent required for these efforts will continue to be invested.
Infrastructure expansion has likewise not stopped. Microsoft disclosed in July that 88 new data centres had been added in the past fiscal year and planned to double the overall capacity within two years. As more equipment becomes operational, the company still needs personnel to maintain the rooms.
So, within the scope of this exit invitation, there is a notable detail — the data centre team did not participate in this round.
Auto-fetched and translated by AI Atlas. All rights belong to the original author.