---
title: "Microsoft Fires 10,000 Employees as It Invests in AI"
description: "Amid rumors of a huge OpenAI deal, Microsoft has announced that it's laying off a whopping 10,000 employees as the economy continues its downturn."
date: "2023-01-18"
modified: "2023-01-18"
authors:
  - name: "Noor Al-Sibai"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-10000-layoffs-openai"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "big tech"
  - "microsoft"
  - "OpenAI"
  - "the digest"
---

# Microsoft Fires 10,000 Employees as It Invests in AI

![Amid rumors of a huge OpenAI deal, Microsoft has announced that it's laying off a whopping 10,000 employees as the economy continues its downturn.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/meecrosoftay.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Saul Loeb via Getty / Futurism\</em\>*

## Get Laid (Off)

Amid [rumors of a multi-billion dollar deal](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-openai-office-deal>) with OpenAI, Microsoft has announced that it's laying off a whopping 10,000 employees, making it the latest tech company to let go of a large chunk of its workers.

In a memo sent to employees and [published on the company's blog](<https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/01/18/subject-focusing-on-our-short-and-long-term-opportunity/>), CEO Satya Nadella said that over the next few months, the company would be laying off up to five percent of its global workforce, with some impacted being notified immediately.

Nadella added that with the job cuts, the company would be taking on a whopping $1.2 billion bill "related to severance costs, changes to our hardware portfolio, and the cost of lease consolidation as we create higher density across our workspaces."

The looming undercurrent to the layoffs, though? Artificial intelligence.

## Rumor Has It

On its face, the statement is pretty much [par for the course](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/45000-tech-workers-layoffs>) in the tech industry amid our [not-recession](<https://www.reuters.com/world/us/no-were-not-recession-biden-administration-tells-us-voters-2022-07-26/>) — as *Insider* noted prior to the Microsoft redundancies announcement, an [average of 1,600 tech workers have been laid off](<https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-workers-laid-off-every-day-january-recession-downturn-2023-1>) *per day* over the first weeks of 2023, and just after news of the Microsoft layoffs dropped, [*Bloomberg* reported](<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-18/amazon-is-set-for-new-round-of-job-cuts-affecting-18-000-people?sref=YfHlo0rL>) that Amazon was kicking off a round of job cuts that would see up to 18,000 people out of work.

But given that the layoff announcement came on the [heels of speculation](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-openai-office-deal>) that the company might be investing as much as $10 billion in OpenAI to incorporate its powerful text-generating algorithms like GPT-3 into its Office suite and [even Bing](<https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-and-openai-working-on-chatgpt-powered-bing-in-challenge-to-google>) — and less than a day after [Nadella boasted](<https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-plans-to-build-openai-capabilities-into-all-products-11673947774>) that the company was indeed planning to expand its artificial intelligence offerings into all its products — the timing seems notable.

To be clear, Microsoft had already invested [at least $1 billion](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-billion-openai>) into OpenAI long before the economy began its current nosedive, and was in fact one of the first businesses to buy in big when it went from being an altruistic nonprofit to a [private company](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-billions-bad-ai>).

But this latest potential deal that Microsoft's CEO all but confirmed when announcing OpenAI's expanded incorporation into the company's products is a pretty bad look during mass layoffs.

**More on Microsoft:** [*New Microsoft AI Can Clone Your Voice From Three Seconds of Audio*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-microsoft-ai-clone-your-voice>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/noorfromfuturism.bsky.social>)