Google offers voluntary exit packages to staff in five countries
The company began the buyouts in June, citing rising costs from its artificial intelligence spending, and confirmed the move to Reuters.
Key facts
Story- Google confirmed it began voluntary exit packages in June for staff in five countries.
- The countries named are Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.
- Google Cloud and DeepMind employees are excluded from the offers, which pay severance based on years of service.
Google has offered voluntary exit packages to some employees in five countries, the company has confirmed. The search giant said it began the buyouts in June for staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. It said the move comes as its spending on artificial intelligence rises.
The company confirmed the offers to Reuters. Staff who accept receive severance pay based on how many years they have worked for Google. Employees in Google Cloud and DeepMind, the company's AI research unit, are not included in the offers.
Employees were told whether they had accepted by mid-July. Google has not said how many staff took up the packages, and it has not said how many roles will be cut.
The buyouts come as large technology firms pour money into AI systems, which need expensive computing hardware and data centres. Google has not given a figure for the total cost of the programme. It has also not said whether the exits are linked to any wider job cuts.
Google has a large engineering presence in Bengaluru, but the offers reported here do not cover India. Google has not said whether staff in other countries will be offered similar packages.
What happens next is not yet clear. Google has not said whether more countries will be added to the programme.
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