Alphabet’s Google cuts employees in the cloud division
(Bloomberg) – Alphabet Inc.’s Google cut staff in its cloud division on Wednesday.
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The cuts were intended to impact less than 100 people working in sales operations and invest in business and artificial intelligence. A Google spokesperson said in a statement that the company continues to coordinate its “meet customers’ needs and meets important opportunities ahead.”
“As our team is doing it throughout the company, we continue to invest in areas that are important to our business and make changes to ensure long-term success,” the spokesman said.
This reduction comes from slow growth from Google’s cloud business and large spending aimed at supporting the ambitions of tech giants in AI. Earlier this month, Alphabet missed analysts’ revenue forecasts for the cloud, and its guidance on capital expenditures for 2025 far exceeded expectations.
Google’s cloud reduction has been shrinking, following previous small moves. In late January, as first reported by 9to5Google, the company announced a “voluntary exit program” for employees working in platforms and device units. Throughout 2024, Google went through a unit-by-unit reorganization unit process, making slow, ripple-over cuts within the company.
Cloud layoffs create layoffs as culling in the tech industry in the corporate workforce has become the norm outside of the New Year. Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Salesforce Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are those who say they are trying to cut down on underperforming employees or hire cheap international labor. Companies are under pressure to invest in AI technology without making a profit.
Google Cloud is considered one of the company’s best bets for growth as its search business matures and remains a key area of investment. During the company’s revenue call in February, Alphabet’s chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi said the company is looking forward to “growth in headcount in key investment areas such as AI and the cloud.”