(NewsNation) — An estimated 9,000 Microsoft employees are being laid off in the latest round of staff cuts by the tech giant.

Impacted employees were notified via email July 2, with The Associated Press reporting that the company’s Xbox video game business was among the divisions targeted for trimming.

The company has not specified the exact number of layoffs that will occur in this round of cuts, but The Seattle Times confirmed with the company that as much as 4% or roughly 9,000 employees could be affected.

This staff reduction marks the third round of Microsoft layoffs so far in 2025. Experts say the cuts appear to be geared at streamlining its workforce and ensuring efficiency.

All of this comes as the company continues to invest heavily in AI. Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that “maybe 20, 30% of the code” for some of Microsoft’s coding projects “are probably all written by software” during a talk at Meta’s LlamaCon Conference.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.