Ask HN: Is the Microsoft buyout just a long overdue correction?

2•sky2224•54m ago

I was looking at the head counts recently for Microsoft and comparing with past years.

In 2018 their headcount was around 131,000 employees. In 2020, that jumped to 163,000. By 2022, they had exploded to 221,000 employees.

Currently, if we exclude the Activision headcount, they're sitting at around 218,000 people.

Maybe the more business minded people can shed some light on this for me, but even with the stronger economy in 2018, Microsoft had no where near this many employees. It feels like this would have happened whether or not the economy was doing poorly right now.

Thoughts?

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anovikov•34m ago

What do you think might be wrong about the economy? If you don't read social media which is always negative (i do not). Every single metric i could think of, is fantastic, from employment to stock market to GDP growth to consumption of everything to private net worth. Inflation is high-ish sure, but this is what normally happens in a boom.

sky2224•10m ago

If you're among the top 10% in the US, you're likely doing fine at the moment, but everyone else is struggling. On paper things may seem okay for the government and large companies reaping the benefits of this AI boom, but the current trajectory is not sustainable. Things will get ugly for everyone if we do not course correct on a number of issues like tariffs, Iran war, and more.

Gas prices are at an all time high, housing has never been less affordable, Intel stock just plunged a record 29% in its history, the US is now $40 trillion in debt... this is all just off the top of my head right now.

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Ask HN: Is the Microsoft buyout just a long overdue correction?

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