Key facts
- Google confirmed the voluntary exit packages began in June in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.
- In Switzerland, staff who accepted received one month's salary per year of service, capped at 12 months, three people familiar with the matter said.
- The Swiss program covered multiple divisions but excluded DeepMind, the people said, and employees began leaving in August.
- Google laid off more than 200 employees in Switzerland in 2023, prompting staff protests and a walkout.
- Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees last week in an effort to contain costs, according to the report.
Alphabet's Google expanded voluntary exit packages to employees in several countries in June, the company confirmed to Reuters, extending a cost-cutting program it has run in some US and British divisions since last year.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement that some teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance in 2025 and that the company expanded it globally in a few countries in June to support its work ahead. The countries covered are Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. Reuters could not determine how many employees accepted the offers, which had not previously been reported.
In Switzerland, where Google employs about 5,000 people and runs a major engineering hub in Zurich, three people familiar with the matter said the program covered multiple divisions but excluded DeepMind. Google announced the packages in mid-June and gave responses by mid-July to employees who applied, the people said. Staff who accepted received one month's salary for each year of service, up to a maximum of 12 months, and employees began leaving in August. One person said at least four employees in a team of about 50 had accepted the offer.
Google laid off more than 200 employees in Switzerland in 2023, prompting staff protests and a walkout. Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi has repeatedly named AI and cloud computing as hiring priorities in quarterly earnings presentations, and employees in Google Cloud and the AI unit DeepMind have been excluded from past buyout offers. The latest expansion appears to follow the same pattern, Reuters reported.
The move comes as heavy spending on artificial intelligence has unnerved Wall Street and dented Alphabet's stock price, according to the report. Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees last week in an effort to contain costs. Alphabet's workforce has grown steadily in recent quarters, but the company has sought to shift resources toward priority areas.