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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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos leaves Aman Venice hotel, on the second day of the wedding festivities of Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez, in Venice, Italy, June 27, 2025.
Yara Nardi | Reuters
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unloaded more than 3.3 million shares of his company in a sale valued at roughly $736.7 million, according to a financial filing on Tuesday.
The stock sale is part of a previously arranged trading plan adopted by Bezos in March. Under that arrangement, Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares of Amazon over a period ending May 29, 2026.
Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 but remains chairman, has been selling stock in the company at a regular clip in recent years, though he’s still the largest individual shareholder. He adopted a similar trading plan in February 2024 to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock through late January of this year.
Bezos previously said he’d sell about $1 billion in Amazon stock each year to fund his space exploration company, Blue Origin. He’s also donated shares to Day 1 Academies, his nonprofit that’s building a chain of Montessori-inspired preschools across several states.
The most recent stock sale comes after Bezos and Lauren Sanchez tied the knot last week in a lavish wedding in Venice. The star-studded celebration, which took place over three days and sparked protests from some local residents, was estimated to cost around $50 million.
Bezos is ranked third in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index with a net worth of about $240 billion. He’s behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk at $363 billion and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at $260 billion.
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai addresses the crowd during Google’s annual I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California on May 20, 2025.
Camille Cohen | AFP | Getty Images
The Google Doodle is Alphabet’s most valuable piece of real estate, and on Tuesday, the company used that space to promote “AI Mode,” its latest AI search product.
Google’s Chrome browser landing pages and Google’s home page featured an animated image that, when clicked, leads users to AI Mode, the company’s latest search product. The doodle image also includes a share button.
The promotion of AI Mode on the Google Doodle comes as the tech company makes efforts to expose more users to its latest AI features amid pressure from artificial intelligence startups. That includes OpenAI which makes ChatGPT, Anthropic which makes Claude and Perplexity AI, which bills itself as an “AI-powered answer engine.”
Google’s “Doodle” Tuesday directed users to its search chatbot-like experience “AI Mode”
AI Mode is Google’s chatbot-like experience for complex user questions. The company began displaying AI Mode alongside its search results page in March.
“Search whatever’s on your mind and get AI-powered responses,” the product description reads when clicked from the home page.
AI Mode is powered by Google’s flagship AI model Gemini, and the tool has rolled out to more U.S. users since its launch. Users can ask AI Mode questions using text, voice or images. Google says AI Mode makes it easier to find answers to complex questions that might have previously required multiple searches.
In May, Google tested the AI Mode feature directly beneath the Google search bar, replacing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” widget — a place where Google rarely makes changes.
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Disposable diapers are a massive environmental offender. Roughly 300,000 of them are sent to landfills or incinerated every minute, according to the World Economic Forum, and they take hundreds of years to decompose. It’s a $60 billion business.
One alternative approach has been compostable diapers, which can be made out of wood pulp or bamboo. But composting services aren’t universally available and some of the products are less absorbent than normal nappies, critics say.
A growing number of parents are also turning to cloth diapers, but they only make up about 20% of the U.S. market.
ZymoChem is attacking the diaper problem from a different angle. Harshal Chokhawala, CEO of ZymoChem, said that 60% to 80% of a typical diaper consists of fossil-based plastics. And half of that is an ingredient called super absorbent polymer, or SAP.
“What we have created is a low carbon footprint bio-based and biodegradable version of this super absorbent polymer,” Chokhawala said.
ZymoChem, with operations in San Leandro, California, and Burlington, Vermont, invented this new type of absorbent by using a fermentation process to convert a renewable resource — sugar — from corn into biodegradable materials. It’s similar to making beer.
“We’re at a point now where we’re very close to being at cost parity with fossil based manufacturing of super absorbents,” said Chokhawala.
The company’s drop-in absorbents can be added into other diapers, which makes it different from environmentally conscious companies like Charlie Banana, Kudos and Hiro, which sell their own brand of diapers.
ZymoChem doesn’t yet have a diaper product on the market. But Lindy Fishburne, managing partner at Breakout Ventures and an investor in the company, says it’s a scalable model.
“Being able to build and grow with biology allows us to unlock a circular economy and a supply chain that is no longer petro-derived, which opens up the opportunities of where you can manufacture and how you secure supply chains,” Fishburne said.
Other investors include Toyota Ventures, GS Futures, KDT Ventures, Cavallo Ventures and Lululemon. The company has raised a total of $35 million.
The Lululemon partnership shows that it’s not just about diapers. ZymoChem’s bio-based materials can also be used in other hygiene products and in bio-based nylon. Lululemon recently said it will use it in some of its leggings, which were traditionally made with petroleum.
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