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Google headquarters is seen in Mountain View, California, United States on September 26, 2022. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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Tech companies have laid off tens of thousands of workers in recent months as the industry grapples with a reduced risk appetite from investors and increases in borrowing costs. Laid-off employees across the tech sector enter an uncertain job market, with headcount reductions taking place across all experience levels and teams. Few companies, with the possible exception of Apple, have been immune.

Laid-off workers will receive severance packages of varying size and duration, depending where they work. Here’s what some of the biggest tech names have promised their employees.

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Alphabet

Google-parent Alphabet slashes headcount by 12,000

On Friday, CEO Sundar Pichai said Google would lay off 12,000 workers across “product areas, functions, levels, and regions.” Laid-off U.S. employees will receive pay through the notification period and receive a 16-week base severance package with an additional two weeks for every year of employment at Google.

Laid-off employees would also have “at least” 16 weeks of share vesting accelerated, Pichai said in a memo to employees. Employees would also receive 6 months of healthcare coverage.

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Google parent company Alphabet shared the memo from Pichai, but did not specify the cost of the layoffs.

CNBC previously reported that employees had been anticipating layoffs with mounting anxiety, and on a heated Sept. 2022 all-hands meeting where employees pushed back against Pichai’s cost-cutting efforts.

Microsoft

On Wednesday, Microsoft said it was laying off 10,000 employees as the software maker anticipated slower revenue growth for the upcoming year. The cuts will take place through the end of March, with a spokesperson telling CNBC that sales and marketing teams would see deeper cuts than engineering.

CEO Satya Nadella said in an employee memo that some would learn this week if they were losing their jobs.

Benefit-eligible U.S. employees are to receive severance, six months of healthcare and stock vesting, and 60 days of notice, Nadella wrote. The Microsoft CEO had already alluded to potential cost-cutting efforts in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“We will have to also get our own sort of operational focus on making sure our expenses are in line with our revenue growth,” Nadella said.

Microsoft will take a $1.2 billion impairment as a result of its restructuring and layoff efforts.

Amazon

Amazon has been going through rolling layoffs since last year. In November, it began job cuts that primarily affected units like recruiting and devices and services. At the time, the company offered its devices and services employees a severance package that included a separation payment, transitional health benefits, and job placement.

Earlier this week, it commenced its latest wave of layoffs, with the deepest cuts being felt in its retail and human resources divisions.

For retail employees in the U.S., Amazon is offering full pay and benefits over a 60-day period where Amazon will continue to keep them on the payroll, but they won’t be expected to keep working. After that period, Amazon will offer laid off employees several weeks of severance depending on the length of time with the company, a separation payment, transitional health benefits and job placement.

Amazon’s severance package appears similar for affected employees in other units. Human resources head Beth Galetti said the company will offer a separation payment, health benefits as applicable by country and job placement.

It’s unclear if Amazon’s severance package includes any provisions that would allow employees to accelerate the vesting of stock compensation. This matters to Amazon employees, as the company’s compensation has historically been weighted heavily to stock. An Amazon spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Salesforce

CEO Marc Benioff told employees on Jan. 4 that Salesforce would reduce headcount by about 10%, or more than 7,000 workers, in response to a challenging economic environment. Laid-off employees would receive a minimum of “nearly” five months of pay. Benioff’s letter to employees also said that laid-off employees would receive health insurance benefits and career resources for an unclear duration.

Some employees who lost their jobs were notified the same day.

“Those outside the U.S. will receive a similar level of support,” Benioff wrote. The company anticipated taking a one to $1.4 billion impairment related to severance payments and “employee transition” amongst other things, according to an 8-K filing.

Benioff told employees more layoffs could be coming, just days after announcing those January cuts.

Meta

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Nov. 9 that over 11,000 jobs would be cut as part of an effort to become a “leaner and more efficient company.” Meta shares had been heavily bruised for months prior, and investors had begun to more actively criticize Zuckerberg’s expensive pivot to virtual reality.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., center, departs from federal court in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

At the time, Zuckerberg promised “every” laid-off employee 16 weeks of severance, plus two weeks for every year of service, as well as RSU vesting and health insurance coverage for a predetermined amount of time.

In Dec. 2022, some laid off workers from a non-traditional apprenticeship program told CNBC that they were receiving substandard severance packages compared to other recently laid off employees. Instead of Zuckerberg’s promised 16 weeks, they received only 8 weeks of base pay, amongst other material differences.

Twitter

Layoffs at Twitter began shortly after Elon Musk completed his takeover deal in 2022. Twitter had been expected to lay off over 3,700 employees, or over 50% of its workforce. Ultimately, many more employees quit after Musk announced that Twitter employees would be expected to commit to a “hardcore” work environment.

Under the terms of Musk’s buyout deal, existing severance agreements were to be honored by new management. But a group of Twitter employees filed suit in November, shortly after layoffs were executed, accusing Twitter of laying them off in violation of California’s layoff-notification law.

Musk had previously said that laid-off employees would receive three months of severance pay, but some Twitter employees claimed that in return for a non-disparagement agreement and a legal waiver, Twitter would offer them only one month of severance.

The class action was updated shortly after filing with allegations that Twitter was offering some laid-off employees half of what they had been promised.

Twitter also laid off over 4,000 contract workers without giving them prior notice, CNBC previously reported.

CNBC’s Annie Palmer, Jonathan Vanian, Jennifer Elias, Jordan Novet, Lora Kolodny, Ashley Capoot, and Sofia Pitt contributed to this report.

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Whoop says FDA is ‘overstepping its authority’ with warning about blood pressure feature

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Whoop says FDA is 'overstepping its authority' with warning about blood pressure feature

The logo for the Food and Drug Administration is seen ahead of a news conference on removing synthetic dyes from America’s food supply, at the Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, DC on April 22, 2025.

Nathan Posner | Anadolu | Getty Images

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday published a warning letter addressed to the wrist wearable company Whoop, alleging it is marketing a new blood pressure feature without proper approvals.

The letter centers around Whoop’s Blood Pressure Insights (BPI) feature, which the company introduced alongside its latest hardware launch in May.

Whoop said its BPI feature uses blood pressure information to offer performance and wellness insights that inform consumers and improve athletic performance.

But the FDA said Tuesday that Whoop’s BPI feature is intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent disease — a key distinction that would reclassify the wellness tracker as a “medical device” that has to undergo a rigorous testing and approval processes.

“Providing blood pressure estimation is not a low-risk function,” the FDA said in the letter. “An erroneously low or high blood pressure reading can have significant consequences for the user.”

A Whoop spokesperson said the company’s system offers only a single daily estimated range and midpoint, which distinguishes it from medical blood pressure devices used for diagnosis or management of high blood pressure.

Whoop users who purchase the $359 “Whoop Life” subscription tier can use the BPI feature to get daily insights about their blood pressure, including estimated systolic and diastolic ranges, according to the company.

Whoop also requires users to log three traditional cuff-readings to act as a baseline in order to unlock the BPI feature.

Additionally, the spokesperson said the BPI data is not unlike other wellness metrics that the company deals with. Just as heart rate variability and respiratory rate can have medical uses, the spokesperson said, they are permitted in a wellness context too.

“We believe the agency is overstepping its authority in this case by attempting to regulate a non-medical wellness feature as a medical device,” the Whoop spokesperson said.

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High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is the number one risk factor for heart attacks, strokes and other types of cardiovascular disease, according to Dr. Ian Kronish, an internist and co-director of Columbia University’s Hypertension Center.

Kronish told CNBC that wearables like Whoop are a big emerging topic of conversation among hypertension experts, in part because there’s “concern that these devices are not yet proven to be accurate.”

If patients don’t get accurate blood pressure readings, they can’t make informed decisions about the care they need.

At the same time, Kronish said wearables like Whoop present a “big opportunity” for patients to take more control over their health, and that many professionals are excited to work with these tools.

Understandably, it can be confusing for consumers to navigate. Kronish encouraged patients to talk with their doctor about how they should use wearables like Whoop.

“It’s really great to hear that the FDA is getting more involved around informing consumers,” Kronish said.

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland November 4, 2009. 

Jason Reed | Reuters

Whoop is not the only wearable manufacturer that’s exploring blood pressure monitoring.

Omron and Garmin both offer medical blood pressure monitoring with on-demand readings that fall under FDA regulation. Samsung also offers blood-pressure-reading technology, but it is not available in the U.S. market.

Apple has also been teasing a blood pressure sensor for its watches, but has not been able to deliver. In 2024, the tech giant received FDA approval for its sleep apnea detection feature.

Whoop has previously received FDA clearance for its ECG feature, which is used to record and analyze a heart’s electrical activity to detect potential irregularities in rhythm. But when it comes to blood pressure, Whoop believes the FDA’s perspective is antiquated.

“We do not believe blood pressure should be considered any more or less sensitive than other physiological metrics like heart rate and respiratory rate,” a spokesperson said. “It appears that the FDA’s concerns may stem from outdated assumptions about blood pressure being strictly a clinical domain and inherently associated with a medical diagnosis.”

The FDA said Whoop could be subject to regulatory actions like seizure, injunction, and civil money penalties if it fails to address the violations that the agency identified in its letter.

Whoop has 15 business days to respond with steps the company has taken to address the violations, as well as how it will prevent similar issues from happening again.

“Even accounting for BPI’s disclaimers, they do not change this conclusion, because they are insufficient to outweigh the fact that the product is, by design, intended to provide a blood pressure estimation that is inherently associated with the diagnosis of a disease or condition,” the FDA said.

WATCH: Watch CNBC’s full interview with FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary

Watch CNBC's full interview with FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary

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Amazon turns to rival SpaceX to launch next batch of Kuiper internet satellites

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Amazon turns to rival SpaceX to launch next batch of Kuiper internet satellites

United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the first two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation stands ready for launch on pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on October 5, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States.

Paul Hennessey | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

As Amazon chases SpaceX in the internet satellite market, the e-commerce and computing giant is now counting on Elon Musk’s rival company to get its next batch of devices into space.

On Wednesday, weather permitting, 24 Kuiper satellites will hitch a ride on one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets from a launchpad on Florida’s Space Coast. A 27-minute launch window for the mission, dubbed “KF-01,” opens at 2:18 a.m. ET.

The launch will be livestreamed on X, the social media platform also owned by Musk.

The mission marks an unusual alliance. SpaceX’s Starlink is currently the dominant provider of low earth orbit satellite internet, with a constellation of roughly 8,000 satellites and about 5 million customers worldwide.

Amazon launched Project Kuiper in 2019 with an aim to provide broadband internet from a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites. The company is working under a tight deadline imposed by the Federal Communications Commission that requires it to have about 1,600 satellites in orbit by the end of July 2026.

Amazon’s first two Kuiper launches came in April and June, sending 27 satellites each time aboard rockets supplied by United Launch Alliance.

Assuming Wednesday’s launch is a success, Amazon will have a total of 78 satellites in orbit. In order to meet the FCC’s tight deadline, Amazon needs to rapidly manufacture and deploy satellites, securing a hefty amount of capacity from rocket providers. Kuiper has booked up to 83 launches, including three rides with SpaceX.

Space has emerged as a battleground between Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, two of the world’s richest men. Aside from Kuiper, Bezos also competes with Musk via his rocket company Blue Origin.

Blue Origin in January sent up its massive New Glenn rocket for the first time, which is intended to rival SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets. While Blue Origin currently trails SpaceX, Bezos last year predicted his latest venture will one day be bigger than Amazon, which he started in 1994.

Kuiper has become one of Amazon’s biggest bets, with more than $10 billion earmarked for the project. The company may need to spend as much as $23 billion to build its full constellation, analysts at Bank of America wrote in a note to clients last week. That figure doesn’t include the cost of building terminals, which consumers will use to connect to the service.

The analysts estimate Amazon is spending $150 million per launch this year, while satellite production costs are projected to total $1.1 billion by the fourth quarter.

Amazon is going after a market that’s expected to grow to at least $40 billion by 2030, the analysts wrote, citing estimates by Boston Consulting Group. The firm estimated that Amazon could generate $7.1 billion in sales from Kuiper by 2032 if it claims 30% of the market.

“With Starlink’s solid early growth, our estimates could be conservative,” the analysts wrote.

WATCH: Amazon launches first Kuiper internet satellites into space

Amazon launches first Kuiper internet satellites into space

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Bitcoin falls below $117,000 after Trump crypto bills are blocked before vote

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Bitcoin falls below 7,000 after Trump crypto bills are blocked before vote

Bitcoin falls as lawmakers grapple with crypto regulation bills: CNBC Crypto World

Bitcoin fell below the $117,000 level on Tuesday after cryptocurrency-related bills were blocked in the House of Representatives.

The price of bitcoin was last down 2.8% at $116,516.00, according to Coin Metrics. That marks a pullback from the day’s high of $120,481.86.

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Bitcoin/USD Coin Metrics, 1-day

The drop comes on the heels of multiple crypto-related bills failing to overcome a procedural hurdle in the House, with 13 Republicans voting with Democrats to block the motion in a 196-223 vote.

In recent days, bitcoin has been trading at all-time highs, spurred by institutional buying of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) amid rising optimism that Congress would soon pass crypto legislation.

Stocks linked to crypto also came under pressure in late afternoon trading. Shares of bitcoin miners Riot Platforms and Mara Holdings closed down 3.3% and 2.3%, respectively. Others like crypto trading platforms Coinbase slid 1.5%. All were under pressure in extended trading.

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