Microsoft to cut 4% of global workforce in latest round of layoffs
The company employs around 228,000 people worldwide as of June 2024, with the latest round affecting almost 4% of its global headcount.
Microsoft has a significant presence in Ireland, employing more than 3,500 people, with its subsidiary LinkedIn employing a further 2,000 workers.
The company is required under Irish law to notify the Department of Enterprise of any significant job losses impacting its Irish operations.
A spokesperson for Microsoft told the Irish Examiner: 'We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace."
It is understood that the cuts will affect all geographies, and if applied uniformly, could result in around 200 Irish jobs being impacted.
The Windows maker had pledged $80bn in capital spending for its 2025 fiscal year. However, the soaring cost of scaling its AI infrastructure has weighed on margins, with its June quarter cloud margin expected to shrink from last year.
Microsoft said on Wednesday that it planned to reduce organisational layers with fewer managers, as well as streamline its products, procedures and roles.
The Seattle Times first reported on the layoffs earlier on Wednesday.
Separately, Bloomberg News reported Microsoft's Barcelona-based King division, which makes the Candy Crush video game, is cutting 10% of its staff, or about 200 jobs.
In 2023, Microsoft cut some 250 Irish jobs across a series of layoffs as the company tried to offset a slump in demand which previously skyrocketed during the covid pandemic.
Big Tech peers, which are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, have also announced job cuts. Facebook parent Meta earlier this year said it would trim about 5% of its "lowest performers", while Alphabet's Google has also laid off hundreds of employees in the past year.
Amazon has also cut jobs across its business segments, most recently in its books division. The company had earlier laid off employees in its devices and services unit and communications staff.
Economic uncertainties and rising costs have triggered layoffs across sectors in Corporate America, as companies rush to streamline operations and hedge against further cost pressures.
The Department of Enterprise has been contacted for comment.
Additional reporting from Reuters.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
38 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Nvidia set to become world's most valuable company in history
Nvidia was on track to become the most valuable company in history today, with the chipmaker's market capitalisation reaching $3.92 trillion as Wall Street doubled down on optimism about AI. Shares of the leading designer of high-end AI chips were up 2.2% at $160.6 in morning trading, giving the company a higher market capitalisation than Apple's record closing value of $3.915 trillion on December 26, 2024. Nvidia's newest chips have made gains in training the largest artificial-intelligence models, fueling demand for products by the Santa Clara, California, company. Microsoft is currently the second-most valuable company on Wall Street, with a market capitalisation of $3.7 trillion as its shares rose 1.5% to $498.5. Apple rose 0.8%, giving it a market value of $3.19 trillion, in third place. A race among Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Tesla to build AI data centers and dominate the emerging technology has fueled insatiable demand for Nvidia's high-end processors. "When the first company crossed a trillion dollars, it was amazing. And now you're talking four trillion, which is just incredible. It tells you that there's this huge rush with AI spending and everybody's chasing it right now," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading. The stock market value of Nvidia, whose core technology was developed to power video games, has increased nearly eight-fold over the past four years, from $500 billion in 2021. Nvidia is now worth more than the combined value of the Canadian and Mexican stock markets, according to LSEG data. The tech company also exceeds the total value of all publicly listed companies in the United Kingdom. Nvidia recently traded at about 32 times analysts' expected earnings for the next 12 months, below its average of about 41 over the past five years, according to LSEG data. That relatively modest price-to-earnings valuation reflects steadily increasing earnings estimates that have outpaced Nvidia's sizable stock gains. The company's stock has now rebounded more than 68% from its recent closing low on April 4, when Wall Street was reeling from President Donald Trump's global tariff announcements. including Nvidia, have recovered on expectations that the White House will cement trade deals to soften Trump's tariffs. Nvidia holds a weight of nearly 7.4% on the benchmark S&P 500. AI poster child Nvidia's swelling market capitalisation underscores Wall Street's big bets on the proliferation of generative AI technology, with the chipmaker's hardware serving as the foundation. Co-founded in 1993 by CEO Jensen Huang, Nvidia has evolved from a niche company popular among video game enthusiasts into Wall Street's barometer for the AI industry. The stock's recent rally comes after a slow first half of the year, when investor optimism about AI took a back seat to worries about tariffs and Trump's trade dispute with Beijing. Chinese startup DeepSeek in January triggered a selloff in global equities markets with a cut-price AI model that outperformed many Western competitors and sparked speculation that companies might spend less on high-end processors. In November of last year, Nvidia took over the spot on the Dow Jones Industrial Average formerly occupied by chipmaker Intel, reflecting a major shift in the semiconductor industry toward AI-linked development and the graphics processing hardware pioneered by Nvidia.
Irish Times
44 minutes ago
- Irish Times
EirGrid says average home pays €9.75 per-month for its services as it pitches investment plan
National electricity grid operator EirGrid says the average home pays €9.75 a-month for its services in a plan seeking go-ahead to invest in its system. Regulators are proposing to allow EirGrid and fellow State company ESB Networks invest an initial €14.1 billion over the next five years to overhaul the systems that bring electricity from power stations to more than two million customers. Eirgrid's submission to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) calculates that it could need between €4 billion and €7.6 billion to expand the electricity grid to meet growing demand and take on more renewables, among other things. The company calculates that its operations amount to €117 a-year, €9.75 a-month, from the total average household electricity bill, which it estimates at slightly more than €1,900, including VAT. READ MORE That comes to around 6 per cent of what Irish families pay every year for electricity, according to its figures. EirGrid and ESB Networks combined sought the CRU's backing for investment plans totalling €19 billion from next year to 2030. The commission said this week it would allow them €14.1 billion initially, but could increase this up to €19 billion should both companies show that they are meeting targets and budgets. This could cost the average customer from €6 to €16 a-year extra for electricity, the CRU calculates. Michael Behan, Eirgrid's chief financial officer argued on Thursday that the review of its spending plans was an opportunity to invest in the Republic's future. 'Investment in our grid infrastructure and the capacity and capability of EirGrid to fulfil its critical role is fundamental to unlocking greater energy independence and security, as well as supporting national and regional economic growth,' he said. Its plans include updating existing power lines, putting in new overhead and underground lines, upgrading existing substations and building new ones. The CRU has allocated EirGrid €2.6 billion of the €14.1 total allowed to the two companies. The commission intends monitoring their progress, only allowing them exceed the initial investment that it has approved if they show they are meeting targets and keeping their plans on track. EirGrid and ESB Networks sought approval for the investment in a process dubbed 'Price Review 6″. Both will have to increase their charges to help pay for their expansion plans, adding to customers' bills. Households and businesses cover network costs through a standing charge on their bills that is separate from the actual cost of their electricity.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
GP's Maryborough Hill home just what the doctor ordered
Size: 270 sq m Bedrooms: 5/6 Bathrooms: 6 BER: C3 THE last time Glenora appeared for sale, the property market was heading for its peak, in October 2006, with a €1.1m AMV: it went 'sale agreed' at €1.45m within a few weeks. When that deal didn't proceed, it got reoffered, getting bids pretty much back to the same sort of sum, before selling to an older couple, retired city GP Dr Jim McKenna and his wife, Miní, who had just sold their family home on the Glasheen Rd for development. What they paid for Glenora in 2007 isn't recorded on the Price Register, which only covers dates from 2010; not only was it not cheap, they converted the then-2,600 sq ft single-storey bungalow in to a dormer. Estate agent Mick McKenna is one of Dr Jim's and Miní's five children (several of whom went in to medicine), along with siblings Joe, James, Johnny, and Pixie. Sole daughter Pixie qualified as a GP at University College Cork in the 1990s and later became a familiar media face when presenting Channel Four's Embarrassing Illnesses, Embarrassing Bodies and in 2016 on RTÉ show Pixie's Sex Clinic. As in the 2000s, property is once more a 'hot' topic in Irish society, from one end of a market (where housing needs are at crisis proportions) to the upper end (where values continue to rise, now put at 10-20% over peak). Back in our 2007 report on Glenora and bids at €1.35m/€1.45m, we noted the sale of up to 14 new builds at Mont Oval Village for €1.2m and also included comments from estate agents that there seemed to be up to 20 would-be buyers in the Cork market with €2m to spend. Shades of 2007 again in the mid 2020s. The upper end of the Cork market has seen a dozen new homes sell for more than €1m in locations like the Model Farm Rd, at Vailima and Merton, at Orchard Road's Ecklinville, and at Hettfyfield, Douglas, while the market up to and over €2m is strong for older, pre-owned stock. Given the spend on Glenora back in the 2000s, to include purchase price likely to have been around €1.35m and the subsequent addition of two first-floor, en-suite dormer bedrooms and staircase, the expectation is that the enlarged Glenora should again sell in the mid-€1m-€2m price range, but auctioneer Mick McKenna is more cautious, especially in his launch guide, pricing it from €1.05m. Would-be viewers might expect it to go far higher. The Price Register shows 16 €1m+plus sales with a Maryborough Douglas address (and 50 in the wider Douglas area), at Maryborough Orchard, at The Paddocks, and on the hill itself. Nearby comparable sales include Creighton, at €1.46m, in late 2024, and the contemporary and high-end Clonard in 2022, at €1.5m, entered from Maryborough Avenue to the rear. This home, Glenora, originally had its grounds between Maryborough Hill and Maryborough Avenue, but a short-term owner, an architect with canny market instincts, split the site and built a crisp one-off to the back of Glenora, fully out of sight, while also doing a significant upgrade to the original 1960s bungalow, which had been a childcare centre at the time of his own purchase, in the early to mid 2000s. The architect reworked the interiors well, redoing the kitchen with distinctive, 3' teak wraparounds on gloss units and in the utility room. The architect also used quality timbers in floors and doors, putting in teak French double doors in a range of rooms across the now-dormer bungalow's L-shape in the private back garden, including from two of the bedrooms. There's now a choice of up to four ground-floor bedrooms (two are en suite), plus two good-sized, dormer, first-floor level ones, each with good en suites. And the builder, Richard McCoy, also added four, feature, dome-topped, green, copper-clad dormer windows, while doing the first floor, which added c 600 sq ft to the original Glenora's floor area. It's got great living areas, too, at ground, with a bright kitchen/dining room with overhead domed rooflights, and the utility also has a roof light, with guest WC off, while the main family bathroom has a raised bath with solid timber surround. Separately, there's a den/library with French doors to the mature, and private landscaped back garden (done by Frances Collins), but the piece de resistance is the large, party sized main reception room, with white marble fire surround and seating area, along with twin sets of French doors (done by Munster Joinery) to the garden/patio. In keeping with the use of good woods in the first year-long 2000s upgrade, internal doors are in cedar, done by SouthWood Joinery, while bathroom tiling came from Richardsons, working well visually with the last occupants' largely antique furniture mix in dark woods. Coming now to a 2025 market as an executor sale (the very well-known Dr McKenna died in January, predeceased by his wife, Miní, in 2018), the detached and enlarged Glenora's in excellent order, with a C3 BER, on pristine grounds facing The Paddocks. New owners might want to do a further round of updates/décor changes to suit personal tastes, but the bones and space and materials used are all good for starters. VERDICT: In the past 25 years, Glenora has itself spanned the age scale of occupants, from older people through a brief period of ownership by a design-savvy single man, to prior use as a childcare centre. Betting now is that it's going to be home for a long period for a younger family, possibly traders-up from the wider Douglas/Rochestown/Maryborough catchment, or to native Corkonians returning from elsewhere and looking for a Cork home in great good health. Maryborough Hill Douglas, Cork €1.05m Size: 270 sq m (2,820 sq ft) Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 6 BER: C3 THE last time Glenora appeared for sale, the property market was heading for its peak: it arrived in October 2006 with a €1.1m AMV, and went 'sale agreed' at €1.45 million within a few weeks. When that deal didn't proceed, it got reoffered, getting bids pretty much back to the same sort of sum before selling to an older couple, retired city GP Dr Jim McKenna and his wife Miní who sold their family home on the Glasheen Road for development. What they paid for Glenora in '07 isn't exactly recorded on the Price Register as it only covers dates from 2010: not only was it not cheap, they then decided to make the then-2,600 sq ft single story bungalow a dormer home as 'my mother liked to sleep upstairs!' So says estate agent family Mick McKenna, one of Dr Jim and Miní's five children (several of whom went into the McKenna family line of medicine) with other siblings Joe, James, Johnny and Pixie. Sole daughter Pixie qualified as a GP in UCC in the 1990s and later became a familiar media face when presenting Channel Four's Embarrassing Illnesses, Embarrassing Bodies and, later in 2016 on RTÉ, Pixie's Sex Clinic. As in the 2000s, property is once more a 'hot' topic in Irish society, from one end of a market where housing needs are at crisis proportions ….to the upper end where values continue to rise, now put at 10-20% over peak. Back in our 2007 report on Glenora's re-offer and bids at €1.35m/€1.45m, we noted the sale of up to 14 new builds t Mont Oval Village at c €1.2 million and also included comments from estate agents that there seemed to be up to 20 would-be buyers in the Cork market with €2m to spend. Shades of 2007 again here now in the mid 2020s: the upper end of the Cork market has of late seen seen over a dozen new homes sell for over €1m in locations like the Model Farm Road at Vailima and Merton, at Orchard Road's Ecklinville and at Hettfyfield, Douglas, while the market up to and over €2m once more is strong for older, pre-owned stock. Given the spend on Glenora back in the 2000s, to include purchase price likely to have been around €1.35m and the subsequent addition of two first floor en suite dormer bedrooms and staircase, the expectation is that the enlarged Glenora should again sell in the mid-€1m-€2m price range, but selling now for family, auctioneer Mick McKenna is more cautious, especially in his launch guide at €1.05m. Would-be viewers might expect it to go far higher: the Price Register shows 16 €1m+plus sale with a Maryborough Douglas address (and over 50 in the wider Douglas area), at Maryborough Orchard, at The Paddocks, and on the hill itself, with nearby comparable sales being Creighton at €1.46m in late 2024, and the contemporary and high-end Clonard in 2022 at €1.5m, entered from Maryborough Avenue to the rear. This home, Glenora, originally had its grounds between Maryborough Hill and Maryborough Avenue, but a short-term owner, an architect with canny market instincts, split the site and built a crisp one-off to the back of Glenora, fully out of sight, while also doing a significant upgrade to the original 1960s bungalow which had been a childcare centre at the time of his own purchase in the early to mid 2000s (that previous usage prompted us to drag out the old Cork joke: 'what's a créche? A créche is a car accident off the Rochestown Road.') The architect reworked the interiors well, redoing the kitchen with distinctive 3' teak wraparounds on gloss units and in the utility room and also using quality timbers in floors and doors, putting in teak French double doors in a range of rooms across the now-dormer bungalow's L-shape in the private back garden, including from two of the bedrooms. There's now a choice of up to four ground floor bedrooms (two are en suite) plus two good-sized dormer first floor level ones, each with good en suites and the builder Richard McCoy also added four feature dome-topped green copper-clad dormer windows while doing the first floor, which added c 600 sq ft to the original Glenora's floor area. It's got great living areas too at ground, with a bright kitchen/dining room with overhead domed rooflights, and the utility also has a roof light, with guest WC off, whilst the main family bathroom has a raised bath with solid timber surround. Separately, there's a den/library with French doors to the mature, and private landscaped back garden (done by Frances Collins), but the piece de resistance is the large, party sized main reception room with white marble fire surround and seating area, along with twin sets of French doors (done by Munster Joinery) to the garden/patio. In keeping with the use of good woods in the first year-long 2000s upgrade, internal doors are in cedar, done by SouthWood Joinery, while bathroom tiling came from Richardsons, working well visually since with the last occupants' largely antique furniture mix in dark woods. Coming now to a 2025 market as an executor sale (the very well-known Dr McKenna died in January, predeceased by his wife Miní in 2018,) the detached and enlarged Glenora's in excellent order, with a C3 BER, on pristine grounds facing The Paddocks: new owners might want to do a further round of updates/décor changes to personal tastes, but the bones and space and materials used are all good for starters. VERDICT: In the past 25 year Glenora has itself spanned the age scale, from older occupants through a brief period of ownership by a design-savvy single man to prior use as a childcare centre: betting now is that it's going to be home for a long period to a younger family, possibly traders up from the wider Douglas/Rochestown/Maryborough catchment, or to returnees looking for a Cork home in great nick.
