I can't speak for the why or the what, but here's the how: they laid off 9,000 emplyoees from their Redding location, first claiming it was due to AI, then claiming it was due to flattening "management structure," (despite only 17% of the layoffs being managers), while putting in 14,000 H1B applications for roles at the same location, averaging 80% of the salaries as the displaced.
Microsoft is happily displacing Americans for cheap labor they can pay less. That's the how of Microsoft.
