Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, has expressed his concerns about the company’s recent layoffs in a memo to its over 200,000 employees. In the memo, Nadella wrote that the job cuts are “weighing heavily” on him and highlighted the challenges of success in an industry without franchise value.
Microsoft has laid off over 15,000 people so far this year, with investors rewarding the company for these cutbacks. The stock’s closing price reached above $500 for the first time on July 9, following the latest labor reductions. Nadella acknowledged that headcount is “basically flat” despite the layoffs.
The cuts reflect a broader trend in the tech industry, with over 80,000 positions eliminated this year alone. Recruit Holdings and Nvidia have also announced significant job losses. Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organization on the planet has been impacted by the rise of AI, leading Nadella to reiterate that “progress isn’t linear” but rather dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and always demanding.
In an effort to adapt to this new era, Nadella outlined a revised mission: building tools that empower everyone to create their own tools. This shift marks a departure from the traditional software factory model, as Microsoft moves towards becoming an “intelligence engine”.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/24/microsoft-satya-nadella-memo-layoffs.html