Google voluntary buyouts are no longer limited to the United States and Britain. Alphabet’s Google confirmed to Reuters that in June 2026 it began offering voluntary exit packages to some employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. The latest round had not been reported before, and Google has not said how many people were offered a package or how many took one.
Reuters said the move is part of an effort to rein in rising costs while the company spends heavily on artificial intelligence, spending that has unsettled investors and weighed on Alphabet’s share price.
Key points
- Google began offering voluntary exit packages in June 2026 in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland
- Google has not disclosed how many staff were offered packages or accepted them
- Google Cloud and DeepMind staff were left out of past offers, and Reuters says the new round appears to follow the same pattern
- In Switzerland, leavers received one month’s salary per year of service, capped at 12 months
- The UAE and the wider Middle East were not among the countries named
Where the Google voluntary buyouts now apply
The company described the scheme as an expansion of a programme that started in 2025. “In 2025, some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. “This past summer, in June, we expanded this program globally in a few countries to support our important work ahead.”
| Country | Offer status | Details reported |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | Offers began June 2026 | No numbers disclosed |
| France | Offers began June 2026 | No numbers disclosed |
| Germany | Offers began June 2026 | No numbers disclosed |
| Japan | Offers began June 2026 | No numbers disclosed |
| Switzerland | Offers began June 2026 | One month’s salary per year of service, up to 12 months |
The UAE and the wider Middle East were not among the countries Google named. Earlier voluntary exit programmes, offered since last year, covered employees in some divisions in the United States and Britain.
Who was left out
Employees in Google Cloud and in the AI unit Google DeepMind were excluded from past buyout offers, according to Reuters, and the latest expansion appears to follow the same pattern. Chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi has repeatedly named AI and cloud computing as hiring priorities in quarterly earnings presentations.
Executives have described the programme as an option for employees who no longer feel aligned with the company’s pace or direction. Reuters also reported that in at least one case, Google followed its voluntary offers to a division with a round of layoffs.
How the offer worked in Switzerland
Switzerland gives the clearest picture so far. Google employs about 5,000 people there and runs a major engineering hub in Zurich. Three people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Swiss programme covered several divisions but excluded DeepMind.
According to those people, Google announced the packages in mid-June and replied to applicants by mid-July. Staff who accepted received one month’s salary for each year of service, up to a maximum of 12 months, and the first employees left in August. One person said at least four employees in a team of about 50 had accepted.
The topic is sensitive in Zurich. Google laid off more than 200 employees in Switzerland in 2023, which led to staff protests and a walkout.
AI spending and the wider tech picture
The buyouts come as Alphabet keeps growing. Its third quarter results show revenue up 25% to US$127.6 billion and purchases of property and equipment of about US$51.4 billion in the quarter, more than double the figure a year earlier. Headcount reached 204,757 at the end of September, up from 190,167 a year before.
Much of that money is going into AI. Google is also reshaping its main product, as covered in our report on Google turning Search into an AI assistant.
Other tech groups are taking similar steps. Reuters reported that Microsoft last week offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees. In a blog post on 26 October, Microsoft said its Voluntary Exit Offer is open to eligible staff in participating teams in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States at level 70 and below. Microsoft has also been raising money for its AI build-out, as seen in its US$25 billion bond sale, while Oracle has cut its workforce, as we reported in Oracle’s AI restructuring.
For staff in the five countries, the key point is that the scheme is voluntary. Google has not announced compulsory job cuts linked to this round, and it has not given a deadline for any further offers.
Sources: Reuters (via CNA), Alphabet Q3 2026 results, Microsoft
For more technology news, visit our technology section.