Google confirms voluntary severance compensation for some employees in five countries
Alphabet-owned Google has confirmed that, starting this June, it has been offering voluntary severance compensation plans to some employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. Employees in the DeepMind division, which is responsible for AI research, and Google Cloud employees had not been included in previous rounds, and this expansion appears to continue the same arrangement.
Reuters exclusively reported the matter on November 4. A Google spokesperson told Reuters that in 2025, some of its teams launched voluntary departure programs with severance compensation. This summer in June, the company expanded the plan to several countries to support important work ahead. Reuters was unable to determine how many people accepted the latest round of invitations, which had not previously been reported.
The Switzerland details are the most specific. Google has about 5,000 employees in Switzerland, and Zurich is its main engineering hub. Three informed sources said the plan covers multiple departments but excludes DeepMind. The company announced the plan in mid-June, responded to employees who applied by mid-July, and people began leaving in August. Employees who accepted receive one month of salary for each year worked, up to 12 months. One of the informed sources said that at least four people in a team of about 50 accepted.
The plan had previously been implemented in some departments in the United States and the United Kingdom. Company executives described it as an option for employees who no longer identify with the company’s pace or direction. At least one department carried out layoffs after the voluntary departures. Alphabet’s total employee count has continued to grow over the past few quarters, reaching 204,757 as of the end of September 2026, while the company has been shifting staff toward priority areas such as AI and cloud computing. Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi has repeatedly emphasized that AI and cloud computing are hiring priorities. Last week, Microsoft offered voluntary severance compensation to about 60,000 employees in an effort to control costs. In 2023, Google cut more than 200 people in Switzerland, triggering employee protests and collective walkouts.
Original source:
Title: EXCLUSIVE: Google extends voluntary buyout offers to employees in several countries Publisher: Reuters (Marleen Kaesebier, Kenrick Cai) Publication date: 2026-11-04 URL: https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/google-extends-voluntary-buyout-offers-employees-several-countries-2026-11-04/ Nature of source: media report Verification status: Key passages were checked against search results and multiple reprints for this report (direct access was blocked); verification date 2026-11-04; support is limited to the company statement, informed-source descriptions, and background facts explicitly cited in the report Supported content: Google confirmed that, starting in June, it offered voluntary severance compensation to some employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland; the spokesperson’s original words; about 5,000 employees in Switzerland, plan details (one month per year worked, cap of 12 months), the timeline, and DeepMind being excluded; previous implementation in the United States and the United Kingdom; the Cloud and DeepMind exclusion pattern; Microsoft’s contemporaneous action; the 2023 Switzerland layoffs background; employee growth and resource reallocation
ABAB AI Insight
Google’s voluntary departure plan dates back to 2025. In January that year, the Platforms & Devices team (covering Android, Pixel, Chrome and others) was the first to launch it in the United States, and it later expanded to other departments such as Search; in November it was extended to some employees in the United Kingdom. The company described this as giving a choice to people who no longer identify with its direction, rather than a forced layoff. In 2023, when Alphabet laid off about 12,000 people globally, the Zurich center in Switzerland cut more than 200 people, and local employees protested with collective walkouts. The union Syndicom said the company rejected an alternative of reduced pay and reduced hours.
This expansion comes against the backdrop of sharply rising Alphabet capital expenditures. Capital expenditures in the third quarter reached $51.4 billion, mainly going into AI infrastructure, while Google Cloud revenue more than doubled year over year. Headcount is still growing (204,757 employees as of the end of September, up by about 10,000 within six months, partly from the acquisition of Wiz), but growth is concentrated in AI and cloud computing. The voluntary plan covers non-priority departments, while DeepMind and Cloud continue to be excluded, forming a reallocation path in which key areas keep hiring and other areas release labor through voluntary departures.
Compared with Microsoft’s offer last week of voluntary severance compensation to about 60,000 employees, or about one quarter of its workforce, Google’s scale is smaller and more selective, and it explicitly protects its core AI and cloud businesses. Microsoft expected a low acceptance rate, while Google has not disclosed a figure, but the sample of at least four acceptances in a 50-person team in Switzerland suggests that some employees are willing to exchange a one-time payout for leaving under a cap of 12 years of service.
For Google, this approach lowers long-term labor costs in non-priority departments while avoiding protests or talent loss that could be triggered by forced layoffs in protected growth areas. The key indicators to watch are changes in headcount in subsequent quarters and the share of hiring tied to Cloud and AI: if total headcount continues to rise while voluntary exits remain concentrated in other departments, the reallocation logic holds; if acceptances exceed expectations and spread to priority teams, cost-control pressure may intensify further.
ABAB News · Laws of cognition
Voluntary departures first set compensation conditions, and employees choose for themselves; this is a different mechanism from layoffs, in which the company unilaterally decides who leaves.
Protecting DeepMind and Cloud while offering exits in other departments is reallocation of labor from non-priority areas to AI priorities, not an overall contraction.
When tenure is exchanged for compensation with a cap, the exit cost for senior employees is manageable, and the company can trade a limited one-time outlay for a sustained reduction in labor expenses.