Microsoft Cuts Salary Raises And Bonuses For Employees As Focus Shifts To Generative AI

Microsoft Corp has reportedly informed its full-time employees that they will not receive salary raises this year, and the company will also reduce its budget for bonuses and stock awards. The news was first reported by Insider, which cited an internal email sent by CEO Satya Nadella.

Microsoft has yet to respond to a Reuters request for comment.

"Last year, we made a significant investment in compensation driven by market conditions and company performance, nearly doubling our global merit budget...this year the economic conditions are very different across many dimensions" the report quoted Nadella saying.

Microsoft stated in January that it would lay off 10,000 employees, adding to the tens of thousands of layoffs that had already been reported throughout the IT sector as it struggles with sluggish growth in a volatile market.

Microsoft has now devoted its whole attention to generative AI, an area that the business community considers to be a strength.

Microsoft has been integrating artificial intelligence technology into its Office products as well as its Bing search engine in partnership with OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT and has also gotten billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft.