Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella speaks openly, probably for the first time, about the ongoing layoffs at the company. Speaking about the recent 15,000 job eliminations, he says that it has been ‘among the most difficult decisions’. Furthermore, addressing those who left the company due to the cuts, he said ‘I am deeply grateful’ for your contributions.
In his recent email to the employees, Nadella said, “I want to speak to what’s been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations. These decisions are among the most difficult we have to make. They affect people we’ve worked alongside, learned from, and shared countless moments with—our colleagues, teammates, and friends. I want to express my sincere gratitude to those who have left. Their contributions have shaped who we are as a company, helping build the foundation we stand on today. And for that, I am deeply grateful.”
Nadella also put to rest all the uncertainty around the layoffs. He said that ‘Microsoft is thriving’ and the cuts were purely to bring operational efficiency, and the ‘overall headcount is relatively unchanged.
“I also want to acknowledge the uncertainty and seeming incongruence of the times we’re in. By every objective measure, Microsoft is thriving—our market performance, strategic positioning, and growth all point up and to the right. We’re investing more in CapEx than ever before. Our overall headcount is relatively unchanged, and some of the talent and expertise in our industry and at Microsoft is being recognized and rewarded at levels never seen before. And yet, at the same time, we’ve undergone layoffs,” he said in his email.
He urged his employees to stay focused on three business priorities: security, quality, and AI transformation. Nadella confirmed that the company is doubling down on the fundamentals to define new frontiers in AI.
“We will reimagine every layer of the tech stack for AI—infrastructure, to the app platform, to apps and agents. The key is to get the platform primitives right for these new workloads and for the next order of magnitude of scale. Our differentiation will come from how we bring these layers together to deliver end-to-end experiences and products, with the core ethos of a platform company that fosters ecosystem opportunity broadly. Getting both the product and platform right for the AI wave is our North Star!” he said.
