Google buyouts: Amidst 'voluntary exit program', AI frontrunner to end remote jobs for hybrid models

Amid heavy investment in AI development, Google is offering buyouts to U.S. employees across multiple divisions, including its central engineering teams. Members of the tech giant's search and advertising units have also been provided with voluntary buyout offers, reportedly as part of continuing cost-cutting efforts as AI spending takes center stage.

For the unversed, after several rounds of layoffs in 2024, Google’s latest effort to reduce headcount follows a significant downsizing at the beginning of 2023, when the company cut approximately 12,000 jobs—about 6% of its workforce.

Earlier this year, some teams at Google introduced what is being called a "voluntary exit program" with severance for U.S.-based employees. According to company spokesperson Courtenay Mencini, several more teams are now offering the program to support upcoming priorities—presumably artificial intelligence—Investopedia said in a report. The report also quoted the spokesperson as saying that employees are being asked to switch to a hybrid work model as the company aims to bring its workforce "together in person."

Most recently, Google’s Knowledge and Information division announced the "voluntary exit program." Reports said that employees working in Google’s search, advertising, and commerce teams fall under this division.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that OpenAI plans to add Alphabet's Google Cloud service to meet its growing computing capacity needs. The deal, which had been under discussion for a few months, was finalized in May, one of the sources added. It underscores how the massive computing demands required to train and deploy AI models are reshaping the competitive dynamics in the AI industry and marks OpenAI's latest move to diversify its computing sources beyond its major supporter Microsoft, including the high-profile Stargate data center project.