Google parent company Alphabet to lay off 12,000 workers as AI focus intensifies
- Cuts come at a delicate moment for the US company, which has long been the leader in key areas of AI research, but now faces competitive and regulatory threats
- The news follows a raft of layoffs in the tech sector recently, which include 10,000 each by Microsoft and Amazon, and hundreds from China’s Weibo and Bilibili
Google’s parent company Alphabet is cutting about 12,000 jobs, or 6 per cent of its workforce, it said in a staff memo on Friday, as the technology sector reels from layoffs and companies stake their futures on artificial intelligence (AI).
Alphabet’s shares were up nearly 3 per cent in pre-market trading.
The cuts come at a delicate moment for the US company, which has long been the leader in key areas of AI research.
Alphabet now faces a challenge from Microsoft in a branch of tech that can, for instance, create virtually any content a user can think up and type in a text box.
Microsoft this week said recession worries were forcing it to shed 10,000 jobs, less than 5 per cent of its workforce, and it would focus on imbuing its products with more AI going forward – a point Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai echoed in the memo.
Alphabet faced “a different economic reality” from the past two years when it rapidly expanded headcount, decisions for which Pichai said he took “full responsibility”. Pichai became Alphabet CEO in 2019.