Why Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is being trolled for stealing American jobs amid layoffs

Asha Sharma, Xbox’s new chief executive officer (CEO), has brought Microsoft’s long-faded division to the spotlight. On Monday (July 6), Sharma announced the company’s plan to cut 3,200 jobs.

The move is part of the Microsoft-owned company's wider AI-led restructuring, with Xbox the most impacted, after Sharma said in a letter to employees that the division's "business is not healthy.”

Apart from layoffs, the new CEO has been making sweeping changes within the firm since she took charge in February this year, after succeeding Microsoft veteran Phil Spencer. 

After announcing job cuts affecting over 1,000 employees, Sharma has been trolled online for taking away American jobs. Several X users have framed the firing as opportunities being handed to H-1B visa workers

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We take a look.

Asha Sharma trolled amid layoffs: Why?

An X handle that mainly posts about the US labour market posted on the platform said: “Xbox Indian CEO Asha Sharma just announced firing 3,200 Americans. She filed for 5,000 H-1B visa hires this year. Asha was appointed CEO of Xbox in February by Indian Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella,” accusing Sharma of stealing American jobs. The tweet was widely viewed.

The Xbox layoffs extend beyond the US and are part of Microsoft's broader global restructuring. The company has filed only 2,273 H-1B visa applications for FY26, while Amazon leads the list with 4,831 filings, followed by Infosys with 3,195 and Apple with 2,381. 

Still, some went on to accuse Sharma of targeting Americans’ jobs. Another comment read, “Indians only ever hire Indians. They (Indians) are gutting American companies.”

“This is how Indians gut our tech companies, our universities, and our hospitals. Once a single Indian gets into a position of power, they systematically fire Americans while only hiring other Indians from their specific region in India. They then set up offshoring pipelines back to India, so that anyone they can’t hire through H-1B, they hire in India until they can transfer via L-1 (manager) visa,” another comment which received over 6,000 likes noted. 

The whole Xbox layoffs have brought back H-1B visa talk, with many viewing the firing as a deliberate attempt to target Americans’ jobs, while Sharma has called it the “division reset.”

Who is Asha Sharma?

Sharma was born in Racine, Wisconsin, US, in 1989. Her parents were divorced, and, according to a report by India Today, her mother worked at a department store. As a teenager, Sharma also worked on a golf course.

The Xbox CEO earned a Bachelor of Science in Business from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in 2011. During her time there, she also led a community programme for at-risk teenagers in Brooklyn.

After graduating, Sharma joined Microsoft’s marketing division, where she worked for 2 years. She then moved to Porch Group as COO in 2013. After spending four years there, Sharma joined Meta in 2017 and worked as head of product for Messenger and Instagram Direct, and as GM of calling, video, and kids experiences, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Sharma became Instacart's Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2021 and remained with the company when it went public in 2023.

She rejoined Microsoft in 2024 as President of CoreAI Product, leading Azure AI, machine learning systems and other AI products, before taking over as Executive Vice President and CEO of Microsoft Gaming (now Xbox) in February this year.

Sharma has also held board positions at The Home Depot and Coupang.

What did Sharma say on layoffs & resets?

In her long message to the employee, the new CEO noted that the job cuts are painful; however, it’s necessary as the firm struggles to generate expected returns.

“Our business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3–10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they have not grown at the pace we expected…” she wrote on X.

Beyond the layoffs, Xbox is also set to spin off five gaming studios under its umbrella. Meanwhile, Sharma also announced that two of the division's biggest moneymakers – Minecraft developer Mojang and Candy Crush maker King – will now report directly to her.

The Indian-origin CEO also announced the promotion of veteran executive Helen Chiang to Chief Operating Officer of Xbox. Chiang will report to her directly.

"For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services," Sharma said.

"She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results," she added, assuring that Xbox will be a "bigger company" over the next decade.

With inputs from agencies