Alphabet’s Google cuts employees in cloud division

The cloud layoffs come as the tech industry’s culling of its corporate workforces has become all but standard in a new year

ALPHABET’S Google on Wednesday (Feb 26) cut staffers in its cloud division, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg could not determine how many workers have been affected. The round of cuts impacted only a few teams, according to one of the sources, who asked not to be identified because the round has not been publicly announced. A Google spokesperson said that the company continues to make adjustments to “meet our customers’ needs and the significant opportunity ahead.”

“As teams have been doing across the company, we are making changes to continue to invest in areas that are critical to our business and ensure our long-term success,” the spokesperson said.

The retrenchment comes in the wake of slower growth from Google’s cloud business, as well as massive spending aimed at supporting the tech giant’s ambitions in artificial intelligence (AI). Earlier this month, Alphabet missed analysts’ revenue projections for cloud, and its guidance for 2025 capital expenditures also far exceeded expectations.

Google’s reductions in cloud follow previous, smaller moves by the company to downsize. In late January, as first reported by 9to5Google, the company announced a “voluntary exit programme” for employees working in its Platforms and Devices unit – a group of staffers from its Pixel hardware and Android software division that were merged in 2024 into one team. Throughout 2024, Google made cuts that slowly rippled across the company as it went through a process of reorganisation unit by unit.

The cloud layoffs come as the tech industry’s culling of its corporate workforces has become all but standard in a new year. Amazon.com, Meta Platforms, Salesforce and Microsoft are among those that have said they will cut underperforming employees or seek to hire cheaper international labour. The companies are under pressure to invest in AI technologies without risking profits.

Google Cloud, which is regarded as one of the company’s best bets for growth as the search business matures, remains a key area of investment. During the company’s earnings call in February, Alphabet chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi said the company expects “some head count growth in 2025 in key investment areas such as AI and cloud”. BLOOMBERG

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