When Microsoft said it would be laying off 10,000 employees in January of last year, the news went viral. Since then, the business has revealed a number of smaller waves of layoffs, the most recent of which occurred in May of this year. The computer behemoth helmed by Satya Nadella has now revealed another wave of layoffs that would allegedly affect some 1,000 workers across a number of divisions, including its mixed reality business and Azure cloud operation.

The mixed reality section, which works on creating the HoloLens2 augmented reality headset, is among the most impacted departments. Microsoft intends to keep selling the HoloLens 2 and providing support to its current partners and consumers in spite of these reductions. The business is still dedicated to the Department of Defense's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, which makes use of a HoloLens that has been modified. Since the HoloLens' launch in 2015, concerns of user discomfort have appeared, which has hampered the device's success and prompted ongoing upgrades and enhancements.

We made an announcement earlier today on the reorganization of Microsoft's Mixed Reality division. We are still totally dedicated to providing state-of-the-art technology to support our soldiers and to the Department of Defense's IVAS initiative. We also intend to keep funding W365 in order to access a wider range of Mixed Reality gear. Microsoft representative Craig Cincotta sent The Verge an email stating, "We will keep selling HoloLens 2 and supporting our current HoloLens 2 customers and partners.

"Workforce and organizational adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business," Cincotta continued. For the sake of our future and that of our partners and consumers, we will keep putting strategic development areas first and investing in them."

Not only is the mixed reality sector suffering from major layoffs, but the Azure cloud operation is also being affected. According to Business Insider, hundreds of positions are being eliminated, with a particular impact on the Azure for Operators and Mission Engineering teams. These groups were a part of the Strategic Missions and Technologies group, which was founded in 2021 with the goal of concentrating on large-scale initiatives including space exploration and quantum computing.

In spite of the layoffs, Microsoft's Azure cloud division is still expanding thanks to significant investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and its collaboration with OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. With a strategic focus on AI, the business has integrated AI capabilities into its products, including the premium features in Microsoft 365 apps and the Copilot chatbot, which can automate activities like creating presentations and notes.