Bloody Thursday: Up to 18,000 people lose jobs or face buyouts at Meta, Nike and Microsoft

Meta also said it is canceling plans to hire for 6,000 open roles. Employees won't know if they're impacted by these cuts until May 20.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is offering voluntary buyouts (2) to roughly 7% of its employees, which is about 8,750 workers. The buyouts are being offered to long-time Microsoft employees and is part of an ongoing reorganization that's centered around its efforts to move forward its AI division.

The cuts at Nike, which will impact 1,400 employees, aren't directly AI related, although they take place largely in the company's technology department. COO Venkatesh Alagirisamy said the move was part of an ongoing turnaround that includes modernizing its manufacturing and a reshaping of the tech teams.

Not isolated incidents

These aren't the first recent staff reductions for Meta, Nike or Microsoft.

Just last month, Meta reportedly laid off several hundred people (3) across multiple teams in the Reality Labs division as well as social media and recruiting. In January, roughly 1,500 jobs were cut. And last February, the company slashed (4) 3,600 positions.

Microsoft isn't directly laying people off at this time, though that could be a possibility if it doesn't hit targets with the employee buyouts. Last year, though, it had several rounds of layoffs, resulting in roughly 15,000 people losing their jobs, with significant impacts on the Xbox teams.

This is the second round of layoffs at Nike this year. In January, 775 workers lost their jobs.

A brutal year — with more to come

AI was cited as a factor in nearly 55,000 layoffs (5) in 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a consulting firm that specializes in employment. That could, however, be just the tip of the iceberg.

A chilling forecast from Goldman Sachs in 2023 estimated that breakthroughs in generative AI could put as many as 300 million (6) jobs at risk.