Google Expands Voluntary Employee Buyout Offers to Multiple International Hubs

Alphabet's Google has widened its voluntary employee buyout program to staff across Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. The initiative, which began in June, follows earlier buyout programs rolled out in the United States and the United Kingdom as Alphabet aims to rein in operating costs and fund heavy capital expenditures in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Strategic growth divisions, specifically Google Cloud and AI research arm DeepMind, are excluded from the offers. In Switzerland, departing workers among its roughly 5,000 employees received one month of salary per year of service, capped at 12 months.