Google lays off lots of in Android, Pixel, and Chrome models amid strategic AI push

Alphabet’s Google has laid off lots of of staff throughout key product groups—Android, Pixel, and Chrome—as the corporate continues shifting sources into its rising AI efforts. The job cuts, first reported by The Data, have an effect on its platforms and gadgets unit, signaling a deeper technique shift inside Google’s core shopper tech operations.

The newest layoff hit the very coronary heart of its platforms and gadgets division. These are merchandise billions work together with daily, which makes the transfer laborious to disregard. The report cites a supply conversant in the choice.

The job cuts comply with Google’s earlier buyout supply made in January to employees on this division. It seems that the supply was only a warm-up.

“Since combining the platforms and gadgets groups final yr, we’ve centered on turning into extra nimble and working extra successfully and this included making some job reductions along with the voluntary exit program that we provided in January,” a Google spokesperson advised The Information.

The shift isn’t taking place in isolation. Large Tech has been pivoting—quietly however persistently—towards areas like AI infrastructure and information facilities whereas pulling again from segments that when obtained all of the love. Final month, Enterprise Insider reported that Amazon was preparing to cut 14,000 management roles as a part of a cost-saving plan aimed toward trimming $3.5 billion in annual bills, Reuters reported.

In January, Meta let go of about 5% of what it known as its “lowest performers” and turned up hiring for machine studying engineers. Microsoft reduce 650 roles in its Xbox division again in September. Amazon shed jobs throughout communications and different departments. Apple, often silent throughout these waves, even trimmed round 100 positions from its digital providers group final yr.

Google’s cloud division wasn’t spared both. Bloomberg reported in February that a number of groups have been affected, although the cuts have been described as restricted.

That is simply the newest chapter in Google’s broader workforce recalibration. Again in January 2023, the corporate slashed 12,000 jobs—about 6% of its world employees. That transfer despatched a transparent sign: the corporate was rethinking the way it allocates folks, time, and capital.

Now, with AI dominating inside memos and investor calls alike, it’s clear which route the winds are blowing.

This transfer locations Google alongside different tech firms trimming their workforce. Layoffs.FYI, a website monitoring job cuts in tech, reports that 93 tech firms have eradicated 23,505 jobs thus far this yr.