Google CEO Sundar Pichai has promised more job cuts this year, and the company is delivering. Business Insider first reported that the latest round of cuts will affect “multiple teams” across Google's real estate and finance divisions. The article added that “one current employee said the changes are 'pretty significant,' and that some roles will be moved overseas.”
CNBC obtained a copy of the memo about the layoffs sent to employees by Ruth Porat, CFO of Google and Alphabet. Porat blamed the layoffs on AI, saying, “The technology industry is at the cusp of a major shift in AI-enabled platforms. As a company, this means we have the opportunity to build products that work better for billions of users and deliver faster solutions to our customers, but it also means we must collectively make tough decisions, including how and where we work to align with our top priorities.” It's not clear how or if AI is actually taking over roles in real estate and finance.
Google has cut jobs across many divisions since 2022, when Pichai declared the company wasn't productive enough, including a major layoff of 12,000 employees in January 2023 and countless smaller cuts since then. Google's cuts are in line with a wave of larger job cuts happening across the tech industry.
It's not that surprising to see the real estate sector taking a big hit. Another big recent tech trend is the huge shift to working from home brought on by the pandemic. Luxury real estate was once the bedrock of these tech giants, but as everyone realized they could do the same work from home, office space is sitting empty and unused. Google responded by canceling real estate projects and backing away from some office space deals.