Microsoft and Meta, the company behind Instagram and WhatsApp, are planning to make significant cuts to their respective workforces as spending on artificial intelligence (AI) finds a new high gear.

Meta said it was laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, in a bid to make efficiency savings as it ramps up investment.

Around 6,000 job vacancies were also to be left unfilled, it confirmed.

Meta had previously told investors that spending would top $160bn during 2026 – up from just shy of $120bn last year.

The company is competing with rivals to hire AI experts and, at the same time, is facing huge bills for data centres to power the technological development.

The announcement marks the continuation of a job cut trend across major US tech firms in recent years.

Microsoft said it was offering a voluntary redundancy programme, which the AP news agency reported would affect about 8,750 people within its core US workforce.

The number equates to 7% of its total staff.

Sky’s US partner CNBC had earlier reported the existence of the voluntary scheme, which is due to be rolled out early next month.

The news provider said staff were alerted to it in a memo from the company’s chief people officer, Amy Coleman.

“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” she wrote, according to CNBC. (Sky News)

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Microsoft on Tuesday announced it would invest $17.5 billion in India’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure, making it the U.S. tech giant’s largest investment in Asia. 

The company said that the investments, aimed at expanding hyperscale infrastructure, embedding AI into national platforms, and advancing workforce readiness, will be spread over 4 years, building on its $3 billion pledge made in January. 

The announcement follows a meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which the two discussed India’s AI ambitions. Modi met with other tech CEOs on Tuesday too including Intel’s Lip-Bu Tan.

In a post on social media, Nadella thanked Modi and said that Microsoft’s investments would “help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India’s AI first future.” 

The move comes as India attempts to catch up on AI, with Modi emphasizing building a comprehensive tech ecosystem and AI sovereignty. The country has also recently attracted data center investment pledges of $15 billion from Google and $8 billion from Amazon Web Services. 

“The youth of India will harness this opportunity to innovate and leverage the power of AI for a better planet,” Modi said in a post on X, referring to Microsoft’s investment.

Microsoft’s investments give it a “first‑mover advantage in GPU‑rich data centers while making Azure the preferred platform for India’s AI workloads,” said Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research. This aligns with New Delhi’s AI public infrastructure push, he added.

Microsoft plans to use the funds to scale up its existing cloud and AI infrastructure to serve customers across regions in India. It now provides “Sovereign Public Cloud” and “Sovereign Private Cloud” services in several regions.

The company added that it was doubling its January commitment to train 20 million Indians in AI by 2030, with hopes to grow and skill its more than 22,000 employees in the country. 

Microsoft also announced on Tuesday that it would be integrating its Azure AI capabilities into two key digital public platforms of India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment and the National Career Service. 

India’s Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw called the investment a signal of India’s rise as a reliable global technology partner, accelerating the shift from digital to AI public infrastructure.

While India lags far behind global leaders in advanced technologies like chips and AI, the country’s massive consumer market and public funding have attracted major tech players. 

Under its “India Semiconductor Mission,” the country has approved 10 chip projects with total investments of over $18 billion.

On Monday, American chip designer Intel signed a deal with Mumbai-based Tata Electronics aimed at collaborating on chip offerings in the country, including on products for AI applications. (CNBC)

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The head of Australia’s competition watchdog has slammed Microsoft, claiming it “deliberately hid” a subscription option from Australian customers.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has sued the tech giant for allegedly misleading about 2.7 million Australians over its Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

The ACCC has launched proceedings against Microsoft for allegedly misleading customers about subscription options and price increases after it integrated its AI assistant, Copilot, into Microsoft 365 plans.

The regulator has alleged that since late last year, the tech giant told subscribers of certain plans that they must pay a higher price to maintain their subscriptions, which would now include Copilot, or they would need to cancel.

The ACCC said Microsoft misled customers by not disclosing that subscribers could retain their current plans, without Copilot, at their existing lower prices.

“Following a detailed investigation, the ACCC alleges that Microsoft deliberately hid this third option, to retain the old plan at the old price, in order to increase the uptake of Copilot and the increased revenue from the Copilot integrated plans,” ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

The ACCC chair was scathing of the conduct, telling a press conference that the regulator viewed it as “very serious conduct” and would be seeking a significant penalty.

She said the regulator will be looking for a penalty that shows that non-compliance with the Australian Consumer Law “is not just a cost of doing business”.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ABC News the company was reviewing the ACCC’s claim in detail.

“Consumer trust and transparency are top priorities for Microsoft,” they said.

ABC News revealed in February that a customer had reported the tech giant to the regulator over the pricing changes.

After Microsoft increased its Australian Microsoft 365 subscription prices at the start of the year, users flocked to online forums to criticise the changes.

The proceedings have been lodged in the Federal Court against Microsoft Australia and its parent company, Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft allegedly failed to disclose ‘classic’ subscription option

The ACCC has alleged that since October 31, 2024, Microsoft told subscribers of Microsoft 365 personal and family plans with auto-renewal enabled that to maintain their subscription they must accept the integration of Copilot and pay higher prices for their plan or, alternatively, cancel their subscription.

The regulator said Microsoft’s communication with subscribers did not refer to the existence of the cheaper “classic” plans, and the only way subscribers could access them was to begin the process of cancelling their subscription.

This involved navigating to the subscriptions section of their Microsoft account and selecting “cancel subscription”.

It was only on the following page that subscribers were given the option to instead move to the classic plan.

On Monday, Ms Cass-Gottlieb thanked the more than 100 Australian consumers who made complaints to the ACCC’s Infocentre in late 2024 and early 2025 about the Microsoft changes.

“The Microsoft Office apps included in 365 subscriptions are essential in many people’s lives, and given there are limited substitutes to the bundled package, cancelling the subscription is a decision many would not make lightly.

“We’re concerned that Microsoft’s communications denied its customers the opportunity to make informed decisions about their subscription options which included the possibility of retaining all the features of their existing plan without Copilot and at the lower price.

“We believe many Microsoft 365 customers would have opted for the classic plan had they been aware of all the available options.”

Consumer advocates welcomed the actions from the ACCC.

“Microsoft has significant market share — therefore, high numbers of Australians have arguably been misled into purchasing a more expensive subscription package than they may have wanted or needed,” Consumer Action Law Centre chief executive Stephanie Tonkin said.

“This is exactly the sort of case our consumer regulator should be taking to protect ordinary Australians in a concentrated market.”

The Consumer Policy Research Centre said “businesses should be held accountable for prioritising tactics over trust and failing to treat their customers with the care and respect they deserve”.

The independent think tank noted that 75 per cent of Australians with subscriptions have experienced difficulty when trying to cancel, while one in 10 have given up trying to cancel and continued to pay for unwanted services. (ABC)

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Microsoft is laying off 3% of its workforce, or roughly 7,000 employees, CNBC reported on Tuesday, as the technology giant looks to rein in costs while funneling billions of dollars into its ambitious bet on artificial intelligence.

The cuts will be across all levels and geographies, and are likely the largest since Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees in 2023, according to the report, which cited a company statement.

The company let a small number of employees go in January over performance-related issues, but the latest cuts are not related to that and are focused on trimming management layers, the report said.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The company’s stock was slightly lower in morning trading.

As artificial intelligence emerges as a major growth engine, Big Tech has been pouring money into the space while slashing costs elsewhere to safeguard profit margins.

Rival Google has also laid off hundreds of employees in the past year, as it looks to control costs and prioritize AI, media reports have said.

Microsoft’s reported move comes weeks after the company posted stronger-than-expected growth in its cloud-computing business Azure and blowout results in the latest quarter, calming investor worries in an uncertain economy.

The company had a total of 228,000 workers, with 126,000 employees in the United States at the end of June last year, according to its annual filing with the US SEC. (CNBC/ Reuters)

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There are reports of an IT outage affecting major institutions in Australia and internationally.

According to ABC News, it is experiencing a major network outage, along with several other media outlets.

Crowd-sourced website Downdetector is listing outages for Foxtel, National Australia Bank and Bendigo Bank. 

Earlier on Friday, Microsoft (MSFT.O) said its cloud services outage in the Central U.S. region was resolved after it led to the grounding and cancellation of several flights.

According to Reuters, low-cost carriers Frontier Airlines, a unit of Frontier Group Holdings (ULCC.O), Allegiant and SunCountry (SNCY.O) had reported outages that affected operations.  

Frontier said earlier that a “major Microsoft technical outage” hit its operations temporarily, while SunCountry said a third-party vendor affected its booking and check-in facilities, without naming the company.

“The Allegiant website is currently unavailable due to the Microsoft Azure issue,” Nevada-based Allegiant said in a statement to CNN. Allegiant did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment.

Frontier cancelled 147 flights on Thursday and delayed 212 others, according to data tracker FlightAware. 45% of Allegiant aircrafts were delayed, while Sun Country delayed 23% flights, the data showed. The companies did not give details on the number of flights impacted.

Microsoft said its outage started at about 6 pm ET on Thursday, with a subset of its customers experiencing issues with multiple Azure services in the Central U.S. region. Azure is a cloud computing platform that provides services for building, deploying, and managing applications and services.

Separately, Microsoft said it was investigating an issue impacting various Microsoft 365 apps and services. (Reuters /ABC News)

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