Google expands voluntary buyout offers to employees in five countries

Alphabet is trimming staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland as AI spending keeps climbing Google has quietly widened its voluntary buyout program beyond the US and UK. The company confirmed to Reuters that it began offering exit packages in June to some employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. The goal is familiar. Google wants to contain rising costs while it pours money into artificial intelligence, and payroll is one of the few line items it can trim politely. Who got the offer, and who didn’t The buyouts are voluntary. Eligible employees can take a package and leave, or they can decline and stay. Not everyone qualifies. The program excludes core AI and cloud units, including Google Cloud and DeepMind. Reuters could not determine how many employees accepted this latest round. The offers in these five countries had not previously been reported. Switzerland offers the clearest view of the actual terms. Google employs around 5,000 people there, at what serves as a key engineering hub. Swiss employees were offered one month’s salary for each year of service, capped at a maximum of 12 months. Someone with five years at the company could walk away ...