Google-parent
Alphabet
is set to cut more jobs in order to make space for investment in artificial intelligence.
Alphabet
CEO Sundar Pichai said some teams would need to eliminate roles in order to “create the capacity” for investment in promising areas such as artificial-intelligence, CNBC reported, citing an internal memo.
That could be painful news for Alphabet workers after the company said last week that it was laying off hundreds of employees in multiple teams including those working on Google’s Assistant program, hardware, and internal software tools.
AI has emerged as the priority area for investment for Google over fears its core search business is more exposed to competition than it has been in years. Rivals like
Microsoft
and start-ups such as Perplexity are seeking to attract users to their own AI-enabled search platforms.
However, the layoffs aren’t expected to be on the same scale as last year when Alphabet said it would cut 12,000 positions amid large-scale job losses across the technology industry.
Alphabet didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron’s early on Thursday.
Alphabet shares were up 0.9% in premarket trading on Thursday. Peers
Microsoft
and
Amazon.com
were up 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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