Google has reportedly widened its voluntary-exit programme to employees in five countries as it seeks to balance rising investment in artificial intelligence with tighter cost control.
The latest round of offers covers employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. Workers who choose to leave can receive severance packages, although Google has not disclosed how many employees have accepted the offer.
The programme is part of the company’s broader effort to manage expenses while increasing spending on AI. Earlier in 2025, similar voluntary exit schemes were introduced in selected teams before being expanded to more countries in June.
The offers are not available across all parts of Google’s business. Key growth areas such as DeepMind and Google Cloud have been kept outside the programme, reflecting Google’s continued hiring needs in AI and cloud computing. The company is instead focusing workforce reductions and restructuring efforts on selected teams while strengthening operations linked to its future growth plans.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has significantly increased investment in AI technologies, creating pressure to control costs in other parts of the business. The latest move follows a wider trend in the technology sector, where companies are reorganising teams and redirecting resources towards AI-related initiatives.
In Switzerland, where Google employs around 5,000 people and operates a major engineering hub in Zurich, the impact of the programme is already visible. Employees received the offer in June, and some who accepted began leaving in August.
The severance package in Switzerland reportedly offered one month’s salary for every year of service, capped at 12 months’ pay. Reports suggest that several employees in at least one team chose to take the offer.
The move highlights how major technology companies are reshaping their workforces as AI becomes a bigger strategic and financial priority.