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The Google logo is displayed during the Made By Google event at Google headquarters on August 13, 2024 in Mountain View, California. 

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Google employees have begun circulating an internal petition titled “job security” ahead of expected cost cuts this year, CNBC has learned.

The petition has been signed by more than 1,250 employees and was viewed by CNBC. It is the latest sign of employee upheaval at Google, which has struggled to maintain high morale among its workforce after a year filled with embarrassing product rollouts, worker protests sparked by controversial enterprise contracts and continued rounds of layoffs that stretch back to 2023 and are expected to continue. 

“We, the undersigned Google workers from offices across the US and Canada, are concerned about instability at Google that impacts our ability to do high quality, impactful work,” the petition says. “Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs. The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more.”

New CFO Anat Ashkenazi said in October that one of her top priorities would be to drive more cost cutting as Google expands its spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure in 2025.

“Any organization can always push a little further and I’ll be looking at additional opportunities,” she said, referring to cost cutting, which sparked an internal reaction. Shortly after Ashkenazi’s statements, employees pressed executives for clarity but weren’t given any more details on Ashkenazi’s plans.

The petition calls on Google CEO Sundar Pichai to offer buyouts before conducting layoffs, to guarantee severance to employees that get laid off and to not give low performance review ratings for the purpose of removing employees. The petition also calls for Google’s leadership to offer voluntary buyouts before enacting layoffs.

In the petition, Google employees call on the company’s leadership to not “force” low performance reviews to justify removing certain employees. Results from the company’s annual performance review process, known as Google Reviews and Development, or GRAD, are expected soon.

The company does not have forced rating distributions for GRAD, and every employee is rated on their performance and impact based on their role, level and the expectations they set with their manager, a spokesperson for Google told CNBC.

The petition asks for guaranteed severance equivalent to what laid off employees were offered in January 2023. That year, Google laid off more than 12,000 employees. At the time, Google executives boasted of its severance package, which included 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year employees worked at the company.

Since then, Google has continued with more rounds of layoffs throughout its various division, and impacted employees have told CNBC that their severance packages have varied.

– CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

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Chinese AI app DeepSeek was downloaded by millions. Deleting it might come next

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Chinese AI app DeepSeek was downloaded by millions. Deleting it might come next

This week’s news that the DeepSeek Chatbot app, developed by China, was downloaded from the Apple app store significantly more times than the US-developed ChatGPT from Open AI, wiped billions off the global tech market.

Leon Neal | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Plenty of Americans are discovering the AI search powers of DeepSeek, the breakthrough Chinese generative AI app that surged to No. 1 downloaded status on Apple’s App Store last week. But in an era of U.S.-China technology rivalry and mistrust, and entities from NASA to the U.S. Navy and Taiwanese government prohibiting use of DeepSeek within days, is it wise of millions of Americans to let the app start playing around with their personal search inquiries?

The sudden rise of DeepSeek — created on a rapid timeline and on a budget reportedly much lower than previously thought possible — caught AI experts off guard, though skepticism over the claims remain and some estimates suggest the Chinese company understated costs by hundreds of millions of dollars. Privacy advocates were caught off guard, too, and their concerns aren’t predicated on AI development costs, and they already warning that Americans are putting themselves and their privacy at risk.

The amount of data and information that bad actors in China could harvest from DeepSeek is 20 times worse than what could be collected from a Google search, says Dewardric McNeal, managing director and senior policy analyst at risk management firm Longview Global, which advises companies on China strategy.

“It is a rich trove of intelligence,” said McNeal, who has studied the details of Chinese government data sharing requirements for domestic firms.

There are obvious risks, he said, such as personal banking or health information that can be stolen, and prominent cybersecurity firms are already reporting vulnerabilities in DeepSeek. DeepSeek itself reported being hit with a major cyberattack last week.

But McNeal is just as worried about the “bigger picture” competition between nations.

“I want us to speak broader than just the narrow data; we often don’t speak about the degree to which this information paints a mental map through understanding queries,” McNeal said.

For example, Chinese intelligence could use the broader patterns of queries in DeepSeek to learn about various American industries and to sow division among the public.

“The world won’t end tomorrow because I logged into DeepSeek,” McNeal said, but he added that does not mean there isn’t considerable risk involved. The AI’s open-source approach, for one, could give China access to US-based supply chains at an industry level, allowing them to learn what companies are doing and better compete against them. “National security professionals are thinking about it in those terms,” McNeal said.

Matt Pearl, a special advisor to the deputy national security advisor at the National Security Council in the Biden administration and now the Strategic Technologies Program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said DeepSeek’s privacy policy implies that people have control over what is collected, but it should induce alarm.

“DeepSeek’s privacy policy is not worth the paper it is written on,” Pearl said. DeepSeek is subjected to PRC laws and anything entered into the app is fair game. Through keystroke patterns, a DeepSeek user can be tracked across all devices, information gathered from advertisers, and DeepSeek could also seek to leverage cameras and microphones, according to Pearl.

“If they can do it technically in the app and the PRC determines it is something they want to do, then it poses a danger,” Pearl said.

But the threat that Pearl said most keeps him up at night is related to cybersecurity and the potential for a mass malware injection. “It is hard to emphasize all the different potential ways in which it could be used. And, in theory, it could be done in a single update to the app,” he said.

Officials at High Flyer, the Chinese-backed hedge fund which created DeepSeek, did not respond to a request for comment.

ChatGPT still far ahead of DeepSeek

Despite the outsized impact on the markets and leading AI firms including Nvidia, DeepSeek still has a long way to go to catch up to rival ChatGPT, which is continuing to raise a formidable war chest — a few days after the DeepSeek headlines dominated the tech and markets news cycle, OpenAI was reportedly in talks for a $40 billion funding round.

DeepSeek remains far behind ChatGPT in consumer activity, according to online analytics platform Semrush, with the OpenAI app maintaining an average daily visit count in the tens of millions. But ChatGPT has experienced a recent dip in traffic — it had 22.1 million visitors on October 1, 2024, but that had declined to 14.9 million by January 19, according to Semrush. At the same time, even before it became a major national news story, DeepSeek’s online footprint was growing — from 2.3K average U.S. daily visits on October 1, 2024, to 71.2K by January 19 (a week before it caused the stock market to tank).

Joe Jones, director of research and insights for The International Association of Privacy Professionals, a policy-neutral nonprofit that promotes privacy and AI governance, says that disruptors like DeepSeek can make the organization’s job more difficult.

“It is challenging for people to do that work when you have proliferating laws that are complex, diverse, and often in tension, and technologies like DeepSeek that come at you from left field, upend status quos and make you rethink good governance,” Jones said. The fact that the debate is playing out across borders makes it more contentious. “This has gotten a whole lot more complex in this turbocharged geopolitical environment,” Jones added.

Liang Wenfeng, founder of startup DeepSeek, delivers the keynote speech during the 10th China Private Equity Golden Bull Awards on August 30, 2019 in Shanghai, China.

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

The challenges will not be solved any time soon, according to Brendan Englot, director of the Stevens Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the Stevens Institute of Technology. “AI is now a global international competition, and we will see breakthroughs all over the world,” Englot said.

The open-source technology approach leveraged by DeepSeek — an approach promoted by Meta — means more DeepSeeks are coming. “There will be many more disruptions just like this one shortly,” Englot said.

For consumers, the tradeoffs will need to be navigated with an understanding of the data implications. The tools are being designed to improve lives by increasing efficiency and creativity. “So it is tempting to share our data, but you have to assume it is fair game to be used once you do,” Englot said.

DeepSeek’s success suggests that export controls on advanced chips intended to slow Chinese AI efforts might need to be even stricter, but are also no silver bullet. “To be clear, they’re not a way to duck the competition between the US and China,” wrote Dario Amodei, CEO of gen AI startup Anthropic, in a blog post this week. “In the end, AI companies in the US and other democracies must have better models than those in China if we want to prevail. But we shouldn’t hand the Chinese Communist Party technological advantages when we don’t have to.”

Pearl says it may ultimately fall to the U.S. government to regulate or legislate.

“The government has the ability under the same law that they had to ban TikTok; they can ban DeepSeek. The law that was passed doesn’t just apply to TikTok,” Pearl said, citing provisions of the law related to a company controlled by a foreign adversary, or deemed by the U.S. president to be a threat to national security. Pearl thinks that despite President Trump’s backing away from a TikTok ban, US-based tech companies will likely lobby harder when it comes to AI.

“I think you will see U.S. tech companies lobbying the admin hard on this and saying DeepSeek will corner the AI market, and it is critical to have U.S. companies at the forefront,” Pearl said. “Trump will hear from them at the highest levels. China has made champions by keeping the USA out of their markets, why should we allow them to dominate our markets?”

Lawmakers target DeepSeek as a potential national security risk

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Singapore says U.S. firms should comply with export controls following DeepSeek chip questions

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Singapore says U.S. firms should comply with export controls following DeepSeek chip questions

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a statement Saturday that it expects U.S. companies to comply with U.S. export controls and local laws, following questions over the chips used by China’s DeepSeek to produce its AI model.

Markets were rocked this week after DeepSeek claimed its large language model outperforms OpenAI’s but cost a fraction of the price to train. However, questions were soon raised over the provenance of the semiconductors used to build DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model given U.S. restrictions on exporting advanced AI chips in China. 

DeepSeek’s AI claims have shaken the world — but not everyone’s convinced

Bloomberg on Friday reported that U.S. officials were investigating whether DeepSeek had bought advanced semiconductors from chipmaker Nvidia via third parties in Singapore.

A Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC Monday that the chips used by DeepSeek were fully export-compliant. DeepSeek was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

“We expect US companies, like Nvidia, to comply with US export controls and our domestic legislation. Our customs and law enforcement agencies will continue to work closely with their US counterparts,” MTI said in its statement.

“We have always upheld the rule of law, and acted decisively and firmly against individuals and companies that flout the rules.”

The DeepSeek AI application is seen on a mobile phone in this photo illustration taken in Warsaw, Poland on 27 January, 2025. 

U.S. lawmakers in ‘uncharted waters’ as DeepSeek tests limits of American trade restrictions

In its third-quarter results published in November, Nvidia said that Singapore accounts for almost 22% of its revenue but added that: “most shipments associated with Singapore revenue were to locations other than Singapore and shipments to Singapore were insignificant.”

MTI cited Nvidia’s comments in its Saturday statement and said the chipmaker said there was no reason to believe that DeepSeek had obtained any export-controlled products via Singapore.

“Singapore is an international business hub. Major US and European companies have significant operations here. Nvidia has explained that many of these customers use their business entities in Singapore to purchase chips for products destined for the US and other Western countries,” MTI added.

— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.

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Google offers ‘voluntary’ buyouts to hardware and platform teams

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Google offers 'voluntary' buyouts to hardware and platform teams

Google’s Senior Vice President Hardware, Rick Osterloh, speaks during a launch event in San Francisco, October 4, 2017.

Stephen Lam | Reuters

Google is offering buyouts to employees in its “Platforms and Devices” unit ahead of expected cuts.

That unit includes more than 25,000 full-time employees who work on Android, Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Photos, Google One, Pixel, Fitbit and Nest, according to internal documents reviewed by CNBC. The voluntary exit enrollment applies to full-time employees in the U.S. It’s unclear how many of the unit’s full-time workers are based in the U.S.

“This gives eligible P&D Googlers in my direct-reporting org the ability to voluntarily leave the company with a severance package,” wrote Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of Platforms and Devices, in a memo to employees Thursday that was viewed by CNBC.

The buyouts are a signal of expected cuts within Google as it continues prioritizing artificial intelligence. In October, new CFO Anat Ashkenazi said one of her top priorities would be to drive more cost cutting as Google expands its spending on AI infrastructure in 2025. 

“Any organization can always push a little further and I’ll be looking at additional opportunities,” she said, referring to cost cutting.

A Google spokesperson confirmed the buyout program to CNBC, saying it comes after the company combined its Android and Pixel divisions last April.

“There’s tremendous momentum on this team and with so much important work ahead, we want everyone to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The “voluntary exit plan” may be a fit for employees who are struggling to meet the demands of their jobs, the unit’s hybrid work environment or whose passions don’t align with the division’s mission and goal, Osterloh said. The program is the “right next step” for the unit as it aims to “operate with more efficiency and velocity,” Osterloh added.

Employees have until Feb. 20 to enroll in the exit program. Those who volunteer will find out whether they’ve been accepted on March 25, a memo states.

‘Offering buyouts first is what we asked for’

Some employees praised Google’s decision to offer buyouts rather than immediately laying off employees, according to internal posts viewed by CNBC.

“The P&D email portends layoffs, which sucks but offering buyouts first is what we asked for, is the right thing to do, and Rick deserves a lot of credit for delivering,” one employee said in an internal post that received hundreds of upvotes.

Employees this week were circulating an internal petition titled “job security” ahead of expected cost cuts, CNBC reported Tuesday. One of their asks was for the company to offer voluntary buyouts before conducting layoffs.  

Last week, Google said it would be acquiring some of the engineering team from HTC Vive, one of the top virtual-reality headset makers, to “accelerate the development of the Android XR platform across the headset and glasses ecosystem.” 

In August, Google announced new AI features for Android devices and directly installed them in its homegrown Pixel devices, a move that put its AI in front of consumers before Apple could introduce its Apple Intelligence AI suite of features to iPhone users.

Though Platforms and Device is not the juggernaut moneymaker that Google’s search ads business is, the division’s revenue rose to $10.66 billion in the third quarter, up nearly 28% from $8.34 billion the year prior. Google reported total revenue of $88.27 billion that quarter.

Google, like other tech companies, faces the potential risk of rising hardware costs if President Donald Trump’s blanket tariffs go into effect. Trump is expected to reveal more details on which specific tariffs will be placed on imports from China, Canada, and Mexico in the coming days.

In January 2024, Google laid off some employees from its hardware and central engineering teams, as well as workers in Google Assistant, its voice-activated software product.

Tech news outlet 9to5Google first reported some of details of the unit’s voluntary exit program.

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