Microsoft Azure president Girish Bablani instructed the top managers in his roughly 11,500-person group in recent weeks to propose ways of cutting costs by at least 20%, according to Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes at The Information. Nothing has been finalized and it’s unclear whether layoffs are on the table, but Microsoft could drop some contractors the unit uses. The push comes even though Azure revenue grew 40% to $101.9 billion in the year through June, as data center spending drags on Microsoft’s free cash flow and some Azure leaders privately point to the cost of counteroffers for staff that Anthropic and Meta tried to hire. Microsoft said Azure leadership hasn’t told teams to draw up cost-cutting plans and called the report “inaccurate and careless.”
