The number of tech layoffs continues to tick upwards as AI investments increase, with Microsoft alone cutting around 4,800 employees, or roughly 2.1% of its workforce, this week.
The latest cutbacks are mostly in the company’s commercial sales and Xbox divisions. They follow two others in 2025 that impacted around 15,000 workers, or roughly 4% of the company’s workforce. Prior to the latest cuts, Microsoft had 220,000-plus employees.
The headcount reduction also comes just days after the announcement of Microsoft Frontier Company, an initiative that will provide embedded support for customers deploying AI projects, similar to traditional offerings from systems integrators (SIs).
Taken together, these moves seem to indicate that Microsoft is betting on its engineering expertise, rather than traditional account management, as the path to AI success.
“Microsoft had already reorganized its commercial business around AI,” said Thomas Randall, a research director at Info-Tech Research Group.
Insider Brief Microsoft’s AI Economy Institute will study how artificial intelligence is being adopted across firms, industries and communities. According to Microsoft, the new cohort will focus on what it calls frontier firms and how they are reshaping work, job design, skill demands, productivity and regional economic development. Microsoft said the group includes outside researchers […]
OpenAI's focus on enterprise AI solutions could significantly accelerate business adoption and reshape competitive dynamics in the AI industry.
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The post ClearBridge Exits Microsoft and Amazon Stakes for This Memory Chip Play appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
TLDR ClearBridge initiated a fresh stake in Micron, driven by accelerating AI memory chip demand Microsoft and Amazon positions were reduced during the quarter The fund completely divested from Intuit due to concerns about AI disruption in tax software Additional purchases included Alphabet, Arista Networks, Blackstone, and Tesla Analyst sentiment on Micron remains positive despite a recent 17% price decline ClearBridge Investments has made significant adjustments to its Large Cap Growth Strategy holdings in Q2 2026. The investment firm established a new position in Micron Technology while reducing exposure to Microsoft and Amazon. Additionally, it completely divested its Intuit holdings. These strategic shifts signal ClearBridge’s evolving perspective on AI-driven growth opportunities for the remainder of 2026. The Case for Micron ClearBridge characterized Micron as a
Microsoft plans to focus more on in-house AI models in an effort to reduce its costs for generative AI (genAI), Bloomberg reports. The company has begun using its own MAI models to handle some user AI requests in Word and Excel rather than relying solely on models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
The company still uses third-party models, but has invested increasingly in its own AI solutions over the past year. At the Build developer conference in June, Microsoft unveiled seven new MAI models, including an AI code assistant and an image-generation model.
As the costs of advanced genAI models have risen, several tech companies — including Amazon, Meta, and Accenture — have reportedly been trying to find ways to reduce their expenses.
Microsoft has reportedly begun relying more heavily on its own in-house MAI models rather than third-party AI from OpenAI and Anthropic, according to a Bloomberg report. The company has started using MAI models to handle a portion of user prompts within Excel and Word, marking a shift from its previous approach of powering large parts […]
Microsoft's shift to in-house AI models signals a trend towards tech giants reducing reliance on external AI, impacting AI and crypto markets.
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Microsoft has launched Microsoft Frontier Company, a new consulting organization built to help enterprises plan and deploy AI. The company is investing a staggering $2.5B and deploying 6,000 industry and […]
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Microsoft's shift to in-house AI models in 365 Copilot could reshape AI market dynamics, impacting competitors' valuations and strategic positions.
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