Google announces layoffs in its HR, cloud units as part of on-going cost cuts
A view of the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, on April 16, 2024.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu | Getty Images
Google told staffers in its “People Operations” and cloud organizations this week that it plans to cut employees as a part of internal reorganizations, CNBC has learned.
The company will offer a voluntary exit program to U.S.-based, full-time employees in People Operations, Google’s human relations division, starting in early March, according to a memo issued by HR chief Fiona Cicconi on Tuesday that was viewed by CNBC.
The latest cuts come after finance chief 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. After the company reported revenue that missed expectations for the fourth quarter earlier this month, Ashkenazi said that the company had strong demand for AI products and that it “exited the year with more demand than we had available capacity.”
As part of the People Operations buyouts, employees who are level 4 and level 5 may receive a severance of 14 weeks of salary and one additional week for every full year of service, the memo states. Those are considered mid- to senior-level employees.
Separately, the company also made cuts to several teams within its cloud unit, mostly impacting operations support staff, according to sources and separate internal memos. Some of those moves include moving roles to other countries.
The company confirmed the changes to CNBC, saying reorganizations are part of the normal course of business.
“Our teams have continued to make changes to operate more efficiently, remove layers, and ensure they are set up for long term success,” said Google spokesperson Brandon Asberry in a statement. “This work is ongoing as we continue to invest in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead.”
Last month, Google executives announced they would offer buyouts to U.S. based employees in its “Platforms and Devices” unit ahead of expected cuts. That unit houses more than 25,000 full-time employees who work on Android, Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Photos, Google One, Pixel, Fitbit and Nest.
The company said it is supporting all impacted employees, in line with local requirements, including time to explore and apply to different roles at Google.
Cloud Cuts
The Alphabet-owned company’s cloud layoffs impacted the unit’s sales operations, customer experience, internal deal and go-to-market teams, according to sources who asked not to be named because they are not permitted to speak publicly.
Cloud is one of the company’s high-growth business units and benefits from AI products. For the fourth quarter, the cloud unit’s revenue increased 30% from the year prior. Alphabet has been drawing profit from the cloud business as it tries to keep up with market leaders Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Some impacted employees’ roles are being relocated to India and Mexico City, according to sources and internal correspondence viewed by CNBC.
The company confirmed that the changes include consolidating or opening roles in other parts of the U.S and overseas. The largest employee presence for the cloud unit is still in the U.S., and that’s not changing, the company added.
The number of layoffs is unclear, but the company said it is small in quantity and that the organization continues to hire for critical sales and engineering roles.
Bloomberg first reported the cuts to Google’s cloud division on Wednesday.
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Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk appears on a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Oracle on Friday pushed back against a report that said the company will complete data centers for OpenAI, one of its major customers, in 2028, rather than 2027.
The delay is due to a shortage of labor and materials, according to the Friday report from Bloomberg, which cited unnamed people. Oracle shares fell to a session low of $185.98, down 6.5% from Thursday’s close.
“Site selection and delivery timelines were established in close coordination with OpenAI following execution of the agreement and were jointly agreed,” an Oracle spokesperson said in an email to CNBC. “There have been no delays to any sites required to meet our contractual commitments, and all milestones remain on track.”
The Oracle spokesperson did not specify a timeline for turning on cloud computing infrastructure for OpenAI. In September, OpenAI said it had a partnership with Oracle worth more than $300 billion over the next five years.
“We have a good relationship with OpenAI,” Clay Magouyrk, one of Oracle’s two newly appointed CEOs, said at an October analyst meeting.
Doing business with OpenAI is relatively new to 48-year-old Oracle. Historically, Oracle grew through sales of its database software and business applications. Its cloud infrastructure business now contributes over one-fourth of revenue, although Oracle remains a smaller hyperscaler than Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
OpenAI has also made commitments to other companies as it looks to meet expected capacity needs.
In September, Nvidia said it had signed a letter of intent with OpenAI to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia equipment for the San Francisco artificial intelligence startup. The first phase of that project is expected in the second half of 2026.
Nvidia and OpenAI said in a September statement that they “look forward to finalizing the details of this new phase of strategic partnership in the coming weeks.”
But no announcement has come yet.
In a November filing, Nvidia said “there is no assurance that we will enter into definitive agreements with respect to the OpenAI opportunity.”
OpenAI has historically relied on Nvidia graphics processing units to operate ChatGPT and other products, and now it’s also looking at designing custom chips in a collaboration with Broadcom.
On Thursday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan laid out a timeline for the OpenAI work, which was announced in October. Broadcom and OpenAI said they had signed a term sheet.
“It’s more like 2027, 2028, 2029, 10 gigawatts, that was the OpenAI discussion,” Tan said on Broadcom’s earnings call. “And that’s, I call it, an agreement, an alignment of where we’re headed with respect to a very respected and valued customer, OpenAI. But we do not expect much in 2026.”
OpenAI declined to comment.
WATCH: Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide
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