As Focus On Artificial Intelligence Intensifies, Google's Parent Alphabet To Cut 12,000 Jobs

In what is being seen as a move towards doubling down on artificial intelligence (AI), Google’s parent Alphabet Inc is cutting 12,000 jobs.

The cuts will affect six percent of Alphabet’s workforce globally, primarily in teams for recruitment and engineering, as per reports.

This development on Friday came only weeks after Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts and Amazon 18,000 job cuts. Meta Platforms Inc too recently announced layoffs.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet since 2019, said in a staff memo that the company had increased workforce over the recent years “for a different economic reality than the one we face today”.

He said he was taking full responsibility for the decisions that led to the job cuts.

Shares of California-based Alphabet rose by 3.5 per cent in economic trading before the stock market opened, following the development.

Alphabet has been a leader in AI for long and is facing competition from Microsoft, which is reportedly looking to boost its stake in ChatGPT.

Pichai announced severance packages for the sacked employees, who would receive 16 weeks of salary, their 2022 bonus, paid vacations and health coverage for six months.