Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs amid AI spending

Microsoft cut about 4,800 jobs on July 6, roughly 2.1% of its workforce, with around 1,600 of the cuts landing in Xbox. The layoffs come as Microsoft has committed to roughly $190 billion in AI capital expenditure for 2026, and reporting ties the cuts to that spending pressure alongside a 19 to 30% slide in Microsoft’s stock this year. The same week, the company confirmed it’s shifting some Copilot workloads toward its own in-house MAI models to cut costs (see our related coverage).