Reuters: Google expands voluntary exit program in multiple countries amid high AI spending

We November 4 news: According to Reuters, Google confirmed to Reuters that since June this year it has offered voluntary exit packages to some employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland, in order to control rising costs amid large-scale AI investment. It is not yet clear how many people accepted the offers. A Google spokesperson said some teams launched a voluntary exit program with severance pay in 2025, and in June this year the program was expanded to a small number of other countries. Google Cloud and DeepMind employees had previously not been included in the program, and this expansion appears to follow the same pattern. In Switzerland, employees who accept the offer receive one month's salary for each year of service, up to a maximum of 12 months. Previously, Microsoft last week offered voluntary exit packages to 60,000 employees.