Microsoft president Brad Smith acknowledged that the four rounds of layoffs this year are more about using the money saved to fund AI data centers and GPUs than workers being replaced by AI.
I think this is important for the media to get right versus making it seem like ChatGPT can replace a human worker.
@carnage4life Which is a bit stupid, if you think about it for more than 5 seconds.
Smith's framing suggests that they'll be more profitable with fewer workers. But in a well run business, each worker should be producing more value than they cost to employ. Which was very much the case for me, but I got laid off all the same.
Their thinking is "for every $1 we put into workers, they return $4, but every $1 we put in A.I. yields $10, so let's reallocate!" Except A.I. isn't making MSFT money.
@Legit_Spaghetti @carnage4life
https://www.newsweek.com/ai-race-fossil-powered-generators-are-data-centers-dirty-secret-2068791
AI isn't being funded by the Saudis for revenue.
https://prospect.org/environment/2025-07-09-ai-cancer-cost-trump-fossil-fuels/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/15/data-center-gas-emissions-tech
It's being funded because it's a way to keep burning fossil fuels.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/03/trump-fossil-fuel-donors-data-centers
AI investors want energy hogs, state surveillance platforms, economic precarity for the middle class, government handouts, automated disinformation, and election interference.
https://www.businessinsider.com/recent-company-layoffs-laying-off-workers-2025
@carnage4life MSFT's P/E is really high right now, and yet they dispose of their "greatest asset" instead of raising money from the markets? 🤔
I'm no finance guru but I think they're only saying this because GPUs don't get demoralised and underperform when you tell them they're not your most valued asset...
The other aspect of mass layoffs is how hedge fund managers & petrostate despots are forcing AI.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-06/saudis-plan-100-billion-ai-powerhouse-to-rival-uae-s-tech-hub
https://qz.com/openai-palantir-anthropic-aws-ai-startups-us-defense-1851693801
AI startups hemorrhage money, no revenue, no profits, poor adoption metrics.
With the exception of the ones with government contracts for state surveillance platforms.
https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-ai-surveillance-keep-citizens-on-their-best-behavior-2024-9
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/stargate-trump-openai-ellison-1236114430/
Microsoft is giving up on revenue-generating products to focus on a boondoggle.
1/
Saudi Arabia is planning a new artificial intelligence project with backing of as much as $100 billion as it seeks to develop a technological hub to rival the neighboring United Arab Emirates, people familiar with the matter said.
2/
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/big-tech-is-making-big-money-time-for-more-layoffs.html
Is Microsoft being ordered to do mass layoffs like Google by its investors?
Chris Hohn ordered a profitable corporation to do mass layoffs at Google. How many other tech companies face similar bullying by investors?
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/billionaire-hohn-more-google-layoffs-17736530.php
If we are lucky, Microsoft dies on the AI-hype.
I don't think it will, I think that has cause and effect the wrong way around. When I worked there, I saw a company that was completely lacking vision, completely unable to manage a strategy that lasted more than six months, and which had no plans for when its cash cows became commodities. It had sales teams pushing engineering towards short-term sales at the expense of products that had room to grow to meet large markets (if you just win the Fortune 500 and lose everyone else, you eventually lose the Fortune 500 as well). It had terrible retention for the best people and rapid promotions for the worst. The core culture is of lying to management: lie to your manager so that they can convincingly lie to theirs, and both of you get promoted and moved somewhere else before the failure is noticed, and by then you have someone else to blame it on.
Chasing the AI hype is a symptom of this.
imho
If CEOs were replaced by AI, the same amount of money could be saved and operational staff could be retained.
@stitzl @carnage4life You should have married somebody who would support you in your goals to get an RTX 5090...
I think this analogy works for hiring practices too
Coincidentally, someone on the company Slack just posted the link to this nugget:
https://addxorrol.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-non-anthropomorphized-view-of-llms.html
It eloquently describes a view of LLMs that is much like my own, and explains why using terms like "hallucination" and "understand" is dangerously misguided.
@carnage4life We know they overhired from 2020-2022 and previous rounds of layoffs were partly about correcting that.
So wouldn't be too surprised if this is also finishing the job on excess headcount (ew) in addition to reallocating the budget
Justin
Dare Obasanjo
Ryan the Design Lion
Legit_Spaghetti
Sean Middleditch
Nicole Parsons
Dany
felix
João Santos
M Berberich
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
René M. Grabow
Lars Stitz
EndlessMason
Leeloo
Adriano
stony kark
Steve Hersey
Herman 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇾🇪🍋
henkf_itsjustme
狐ヴィクシー
Eleanor Saitta
G
Frank Davies