Google slashes hundreds of jobs across hardware, engineering

The news: Google dismissed hundreds of workers from its Assistant program, hardware, and internal software tools teams late Wednesday evening.

The numbers: While exact details around the number of employees dismissed in this round of cuts has not been released, Google laid off 12,000 workers – 6% of its workforce – in early 2023. At the end of September, the company employed over 180,000 people.

The context: The tech giant has been struggling to scale back large hiring sprees it undertook during the pandemic, and is also fighting to maintain an edge in areas like artificial intelligence as large rivals encroach.

A Google spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company is “responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead.”