Google is laying off some employees in its Google Cloud business.
As reported by Bloomberg, and citing people "familiar with the matter," the cloud giant cut fewer than 100 jobs in the cloud department and focused on those working in sales operations.
According to the Bloomberg report, this was intended to free up resources to invest in the business and its artificial intelligence capabilities.
Google told Bloomberg in a statement that the company makes adjustments to "meet our customers’ needs and the significant opportunity ahead. As teams have been doing across the company, we’re making changes to continue to invest in areas that are critical to our business and ensure our long-term success.”
DCD has contacted Google to see if there are more job cuts expected.
The cuts come just weeks after Google posted its quarterly earnings. The cloud division's revenue reached almost $12 billion for the quarter, up 30 percent, but came in below analyst expectations, which had expected a 32.2 percent increase to $12.16bn. Google Cloud's operating income was $2.1bn, and the operating margin increased from 9.4 percent to 17.5 percent year over year.
In addition, the company revealed that it was expecting a capex of $75 billion this year, with the majority going to data centers, servers, and networking, far more than the Wall Street expectation of $58bn, and significantly above 2024's $52.5bn capex spend.
Google previously laid off around 100 people from its cloud unit in June 2024, and in January 2023 the company terminated around 12,000 employees.
Earlier this month, Meta Platforms announced it would be laying off around five percent of its staff from February 11 to March 13. The cuts are expected to run across the company, targeting what Meta calls the "lowest performers."
