Earlier this week, I reported on Microsoft preparing to cut 10,000 jobs across its divisions, which the company dismissed as “rumor”. Just a day later, the company confirmed that it will cull over 10,000 Microsoft employees over the next three months. It seems that Microsoft HoloLens will be one focus of workforce reduction.
Sources close to the matter tell Bloomberg that Microsoft has already begun to slash jobs in the HoloLens team. Specifically, it seems the team that makes the HoloLens hardware is in the firing line.
In some ways, this makes sense as Microsoft is some way out from making a HoloLens 3. The company said recently that it will not make a HoloLens 3 until the time is right. Of course, Microsoft is in the middle of fulfilling a commitment to supply thousands of HoloLens units to the US military.
At the end of December, Microsoft began to roll out its HoloLens IVAS units to the US Army following a rocky testing phase. US Army will provide 10,000 headsets to troops during 2023. 5,000 will be HoloLens IVAS 1.0 units, while the other 5,000 will be IVAS 1.1 versions.
Job Cuts
The $22bn contract states the company must provide 120,000 total units. Despite that commitment, it seems Microsoft is willing to offload employees from the HoloLens division. It is worth noting that other divisions will also lose staff amid the widespread job cuts.
Reports point to the company will cut 5% of its global workforce. That does not sound huge, but Microsoft employs hundreds of thousands of workers around the world. So, that 5% totals over 11,000 employees that are facing the axe.
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