Google Pays Staff to Leave Five Countries
Voluntary exit offers widened as AI capex pressed on cash flow, yet headcount rose by 10,000 in six months.
Google confirmed to Reuters on 4 November 2026 that it has extended voluntary exit offers to staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland since June, with Swiss terms paying one month of salary per year of service up to a maximum of 12 months. Google Cloud and DeepMind are excluded. Alphabet still employed 204,757 people at the end of September, about 10,089 more than six months earlier.