Alphabet to Cut Jobs for AI Investment

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is planning to reduce its workforce to make room for increased investment in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). In an internal memo, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated that some teams would need to eliminate certain roles in order to create the necessary capacity for investment in promising areas such as AI. This news comes shortly after the company announced layoffs in multiple teams, including those involved with Google’s Assistant program, hardware, and internal software tools.

The focus on AI investment stems from concerns that Google's core search business is facing heightened competition. Competitors like Microsoft and startups such as Perplexity are attempting to attract users to their own AI-powered search platforms. However, these upcoming job cuts are not expected to be as extensive as last year's reduction of 12,000 positions, which occurred amidst widespread job losses across the technology industry.

Alphabet's response to a request for comment is currently pending. As of now, Alphabet shares have shown a 0.9% increase in premarket trading on Thursday, while Microsoft and Amazon.com have experienced gains of 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively.