In a memo addressed to the company’s staff on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai openly acknowledged the recent wave of layoffs and hinted at the possibility of further downsizing in the future.
Reported by The Verge and confirmed by Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini, the memo stated that the current “role eliminations” are not anticipated to reach the scale of the 12,000-person layoff round experienced last year. Pichai clarified that the primary objectives behind the layoffs are to release funds, presumably for artificial intelligence (AI) research, and to enhance the efficiency of teams across the company.
“We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year,” wrote Pichai. “The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.”
In January alone, Google, headquartered in Mountain View, has disclosed plans to cut over 1,000 positions. Layoffs have been confirmed across various departments, including advertising sales, YouTube’s business arm, design and services, knowledge and information products, core engineering, and Google Assistant.
While Pichai did not explicitly outline the company’s “big priorities” in the memo, speculation points to Google’s AI endeavors. Notably, the company’s AI researchers appear to have been spared from the recent job cuts, with Google introducing its Gemini model in early December as a contender against OpenAI.
In a competitive landscape for top AI talent, tech giants, including Google, are vying for skilled researchers, offering substantial compensation packages. The battle for Nvidia’s high-cost computing chips further intensifies this pursuit.
The recent layoffs follow a period of significant workforce expansion at Google during the pandemic, with the company’s headcount reaching 182,381 employees by the end of September 2023, as per regulatory filings. Pichai explained in the memo that the new layoffs aim to “simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas,” emphasizing that not every team will be impacted.
Stephen McMurtry, communications chair of the Alphabet Workers Union and a Google software engineer, expressed concerns over the layoffs, stating that they cause “chaos in our workplace” and contribute to “widespread anxiety over which team will be the next to disappear.” McMurtry highlighted that, for the first time in the company’s history, layoffs are becoming commonplace at Google.
