Google expands voluntary exit packages to Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland
Google offered voluntary exit packages to staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland from June this year, the company has confirmed, as Alphabet redirects spending toward artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
The buyouts, which had not previously been reported, follow voluntary exit programmes offered since last year to employees in some divisions in the United States and Britain. Google did not say how many staff accepted the latest round. A spokesperson said some teams introduced a voluntary exit programme with severance in 2025, and that in June the company expanded it globally in a few countries "to support our important work ahead".
In Switzerland, where Google employs about 5,000 people and runs a major engineering hub in Zurich, the programme covered multiple divisions but excluded the DeepMind AI unit, according to three people familiar with the matter. Packages were announced in mid-June, with responses due by mid-July, and staff began leaving in August. Those who accepted received one month's salary for each year of service, up to a maximum of 12 months, and at least four people in one team of about 50 took the offer, one person said.
The push comes as heavy AI spending unsettles Wall Street and weighs on Alphabet's share price. Microsoft last week offered voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees in an effort to contain costs. Alphabet's workforce has grown steadily in recent quarters, but the company has been shifting resources toward priority areas. Chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi has repeatedly named AI and cloud computing as key hiring priorities in quarterly earnings calls, and employees in Google Cloud and DeepMind have been excluded from past buyout offers.
The voluntary route has not always stayed voluntary: in at least one case the company followed a division's buyout offer with a round of layoffs. Google cut more than 200 jobs in Switzerland in 2023, prompting staff protests and a walkout.
