Jan 14 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) is planning to

halt hiring in part of its consulting business in the U.S. in a

bid to cut costs, CNBC reported on Tuesday, citing an internal

memo.

The tech giant is looking to manage overall expenses as it

looks to continue investments in its artificial intelligence

(AI) efforts.

Earlier this month, Microsoft ( MSFT ) said it planned to invest

about $80 billion in fiscal 2025 on developing data centers to

train AI models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications.

The consulting division will hold off on hiring new

employees and back-filling roles to reduce costs, consulting

executive Derek Danois told employees, as per the memo, CNBC

reported.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) did not immediately respond to a Reuters

request for comment.

Careful management of costs is of utmost importance,

Danois wrote. The memo also instructs employees to not expense

travel for any internal meetings and use remote sessions

instead.

The changes by the U.S. consulting division are meant to

align with a policy by the Microsoft Customer and Partner

Solutions organization, which has about 60,000 employees, CNBC

reported.

The unit will also cut its marketing and non-billable

external resource spend by 35%, the report said.