Thanks to the advent of cloud computing and distributed digital infrastructure, the one-person micro-enterprise is far from a novel concept. Cheap on-demand compute, remote collaboration, payment processing APIs, social media, and e-commerce marketplaces have all made it easier to “go it alone” as an entrepreneur. But what about scaling that one-person business into something meatier […]
The announcement comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg maintains the company’s ambitious AI strategy, which will require hefty capital investments in data centers.
Five years ago, SpaceX launched Starlink, which has since grown into its biggest revenue driver, expanding to more than 100 countries. But as Starlink scaled, it faced a major hurdle: accepting payments in developing markets, where traditional banking infrastructure is unreliable, slow, and prone to blocking transactions. Many local banks across Africa, Latin America, and […]
Semiconductor giant Intel Corporation has already received $2.2 billion in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce through the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, the company shared during its Thursday earnings call. Dave Zinsner, Intel’s co-interim CEO, executive vice president, and CFO, said the Silicon Valley-based company received the first tranche of $1.1 billion […]
Intel is effectively killing Falcon Shores, its next-generation GPU for high-performance computing and AI workloads. The move comes as Intel tries to correct course after a number of disappointing product launches and historic losses, while competitors like AMD and Nvidia gain ground. Intel co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday […]
Microsoft has started performance-based job cuts, according to termination letters viewed by Business Insider.
Employees losing their jobs will see healthcare benefits end immediately, the letters state. In three specific cases, employees were told by Microsoft they're not getting severance, according to people familiar with the situation. These people asked not to be identified discussing sensitive topics.
"The reason(s) for the termination of your employment include your job performance has not met minimum performance standards and expectations for your position," the letters viewed by BI state. "You are relieved of all job duties effective immediately and your access to Microsoft systems, accounts, and buildings will be removed effective today. You are not to perform any further work on behalf of Microsoft."
The letters do not mention severance, but note that medical, prescription, and dental benefits end on the last day of employment. The letters also say that Microsoft will consider past performance and termination if the person applies for other jobs at the company in the future.
As BI reported earlier this month, Microsoft is taking a stronger stance on performance management like its competitors and managers at the company have spent the past few months evaluating employees all the way up to level 80, one of its highest levels. A company spokesperson declined to comment on Thursday.
A Microsoft spokesperson previously confirmed the job cuts, stating that when people leave for performance reasons, Microsoft often backfills the roles, so there may be little change to the company's overall headcount. At the end of June, Microsoft had roughly 228,000 full-time employees.
"At Microsoft we focus on high performance talent," the spokesperson said. "We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action."
Microsoft also this month started cutting jobs across organizations including Security, Experiences and Devices, sales, and gaming, according to two people familiar with the matter. At the time, a spokesperson said those layoffs were separate from the performance-based cuts.
Read an excerpt from Microsoft's performance-based termination letters:
"The reason(s) for the termination of your employment include your job performance has not met minimum performance standards and expectations for your position. You are relieved of all job duties effective immediately and your access to Microsoft systems, accounts, and buildings will be removed effective today. You are not to perform any further work on behalf of Microsoft.
Note: If you apply for employment at Microsoft in the future, your past performance and basis of termination will be considered.
You must immediately return your Microsoft cardkey, corporate American Express card, phone card, and any other Microsoft property, including but not limited to hardware, software, email files, source code, customer contact information, financial data, status reports, or any other proprietary or confidential data or trade secret information that you have in your possession to me.
You are bound by the terms of your Microsoft Employee Agreement to return such materials and to protect Microsoft confidential information after termination of your employment. If any such materials are stored on any personal device (including, without limitation, computers, mobile phones, tablets, storage devices) you are required to permanently delete them."
Are you a Microsoft employee, or do you have insight to share?Contact the reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]). Use a nonwork device.
The data center market is booming, driven by AI demand. Just last week, OpenAI said that it plans to team up with backers including SoftBank to spend at least $100 billion on data center infrastructure in the U.S. Microsoft aims to put around $80 billion toward AI infrastructure this year, and rival tech giants have […]
Talk to many architects, and they’ll likely tell you that Autodesk’s software, including AutoCAD and Revit, has been indispensable to their work for decades. But despite their widespread use, Autodesk’s former co-CEO and chief product officer Amar Hanspal says that the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is using 20th century tools to design 21st […]
Backline, a new security startup that uses AI agents to automatically remediate security vulnerabilities, is coming out of stealth with a $9 million seed round led by StageOne Ventures. This is the third startup by Maor Goldberg, the company’s co-founder and CEO. He previously co-founded Whitebox Security, which he sold to SailPoint in 2015, as […]
Savant Labs launched its automation platform for data analysts in 2023. The company, which competes with the likes of Alteryx, on Thursday said it had raised $18.5 million in a Series A round led by Dell Technologies Capital. Unlike some other low-code/no-code tools, Savant’s focus is squarely on business analysts. Analysts, its CEO and founder […]
Jared Zhao originally got interested in data analytics during his time at UC Berkeley because he was drawn to how it could turn raw data into a story. Zhao founded his first data analytics startup Polyture in 2021. But advancements in generative AI just a year later made Zhao realize what Polyture was building was […]
SuperOps has raised $25 million in an all-equity Series C round led by March Capital to bolster AI integration into tools supporting managed service providers and IT teams.
LinkedIn, the social platform where people look for and talk about work, may be less visible in Microsoft’s earnings compared to the years when it was an independent company. But around earnings time, LinkedIn often reveals some figures that point to how it continues to grow. On Wednesday, as Microsoft reported its Q2 numbers, the […]
Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood had a message for Microsoft employees in an internal memo amid recent AI news: Keep your head down and focus.
Hood sends the emails quarterly when Microsoft reports earnings, and they mostly rehash the public financial reports.
"There has been a lot of AI-related news this week, but our focus is clear: delivering real-world AI solutions while simultaneously globally scaling our cloud and AI infrastructure to support our partners and customers as they adopt, build, and grow as well," Hood wrote, according to a copy of the email viewed by Business Insider. "As a company, we remain steadfast in the priorities which are required to deliver on that product promise — security, quality, and AI innovation. Thank you for your focus as we work together for our customers who rely on us."
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek recently launched a model that competes with OpenAI at a fraction of the cost. The release has caused many in the technology industry to call into question the trillions of dollars being spent on AI infrastructure.
The debate around DeepSeek set the stage for Microsoft's second-quarter earnings release on Wednesday. The company's stock dropped after it reported its AI and cloud computing services grew less than expected.
Read Amy Hood's full memo to Microsoft employees:
"Team,This afternoon, we announced our second-quarter financial results. We grew revenue by 12% to $69.6 billion, operating income by 17% to $31.7 billion, and earnings per share by 10% to $3.23. Our results exceeded our Q2 outlook given to Wall Street.Our Microsoft Cloud revenue was $40.9 billion, up 21% year-over-year. Our results reflect strong customer demand as we continue to create cutting-edge capabilities that are driving real value and measurable impact for our customers. This quarter, our AI business has surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $13 billion, up 175% year-over-year. Highlights from our commercial business, which grew 17%, are below:Commercial bookings were significantly ahead of expectations and increased 67% and 75% in constant currency. The outperformance was primarily driven by Azure commitments from our partner, OpenAI, and strong execution across our core annuity sales motions. Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 31%, landing at the lower end of our expectations. This includes 13 points of growth from AI services, which exceeded expectations. Growth in non-AI services came in slightly below our expectations, influenced by some near-term execution challenges.Microsoft 365 commercial cloud revenue grew 16%, slightly ahead of expectations, driven by our E5 suite and M365 Copilot. M365 Copilot has seen growth in adoption, expansion, and usage. Dynamics 365 revenue grew 19% driven by growth across all workloads.We invested $22.6 billion in capital expenditures as we invest against both short- and long-term demand signals for our Microsoft Cloud inclusive of AI workloads.In our consumer business, revenue grew 2%, which was better than expected. As we work to accelerate growth in our consumer business, we remain focused on delivering consumer experiences that delight and earn user loyalty. Below are key points from our consumer businesses:Search and news advertising ex TAC revenue grew 21%, above expectations, with rate expansion and continued volume growth from Edge and Bing.Windows OEM and devices revenue grew 4%, ahead of our expectations, driven by commercial PC inventory builds in advance of Windows 10 EOS as well as uncertainty around tariffs. Gaming revenue decreased 7%, primarily driven by hardware. Xbox Content and services revenue increased 2%, ahead of expectations, driven by better performance in Blizzard and Activision content, including Call of Duty.LinkedIn revenue grew 9%, reflecting growth across all lines of business. However, ongoing weakness in the hiring market in key verticals negatively impacted growth in the Talent Solutions business.As a reminder, our stock trades not only on our results, but on our outlook for the next quarter and beyond. Investors listen to our earnings call to gain deeper insights into these indicators, and I would encourage you to listen too, as it offers useful context to help align our efforts in driving toward our priorities and commitments. You can join the call live today at 2:30PM Pacific Time, listen on-demand, or read the transcript on the Investor Relations Website.There has been a lot of AI-related news this week, but our focus is clear: delivering real-world AI solutions while simultaneously globally scaling our cloud and AI infrastructure to support our partners and customers as they adopt, build, and grow as well. As a company, we remain steadfast in the priorities which are required to deliver on that product promise — security, quality, and AI innovation. Thank you for your focus as we work together for our customers who rely on us.With appreciation and gratitude,Amy"
Are you a Microsoft employee, or do you have insight to share?Contact the reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]). Use a nonwork device.
Microsoft’s close partner and collaborator, OpenAI, might be suggesting that DeepSeek stole its IP and violated its terms of service. But Microsoft still wants DeepSeek’s shiny new models on its cloud platform. Microsoft today announced that R1, DeepSeek’s so-called reasoning model, is available on Azure AI Foundry service, Microsoft’s platform that brings together a number […]
Even just a few years ago, FinOps — a collection of best practices to manage the costs of cloud computing — wasn’t something that was top of mind for a lot of businesses. Since then, though, businesses have started tightening their purses. Today, FinOps is pretty much a standard discipline, and there are dozens of […]
Martin Fengler knows a lot about the weather. Fengler got his Ph.D. in mathematics, focused on numerical weather prediction, before working for Meteomedia AG, a network of weather stations in Switzerland and Germany. But while he knew a lot about weather forecasting from the prediction side, he realized the gaps that remained on the consumption […]
Jetify, the company formerly known as Jetpack.io, is launching its first AI agent product Tuesday. Dubbed Testpilot, the company’s first AI agent is meant to make the majority of the routine test-creation process a matter of simply letting Jetify create a test plan, execute it, and report back, all while the agent directly interacts with […]
