Google extends buyouts to five more countries as AI costs climb

Google is offering voluntary buyouts to workers in five more countries as it tries to control costs while spending heavily on AI.

The offers are now open to staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL). 

Why is Google offering buyouts to more workers?

A Google spokesperson told Reuters that the company widened its voluntary buyout program in June to a few more countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. 

Google first offered voluntary exits with severance pay in 2025, and the program was only run in parts of the U.S. and Britain until now. The number of workers that have accepted the new offers is currently not confirmed. Notably, Google has about 5,000 employees in Switzerland.

Executives reportedly see the program as a way out for workers who are no longer aligned with the company’s direction. Google has left staff in Google Cloud and the DeepMind AI unit out of past rounds and out of this round as well. Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi has named AI and cloud computing as hiring priorities on recent earnings calls.

Despite the buyouts, Alphabet is still adding to its workforce. The company had 204,757 employees at the end of September, up from 190,167 a year earlier. 

Its third-quarter results, filed with the SEC on October 28, showed revenue of $127.6 billion, up 25% from a year earlier. Google Cloud revenue was $30.7 billion, which is more than double last year’s, and the net income for common stockholders was $26.2 billion, or $2.12 per share. 

Apart from Alphabet, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) launched a Voluntary Exit Offer on October 26, according to a blog post by Amy Coleman, its Chief People Officer. It is open to eligible employees at level 70 and below in participating teams in Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

Google reportedly got rid of several hundred jobs in its Platforms and Devices group in April 2025, after offering buyouts to some of those workers in January. 

How does AI spending affect Alphabet’s investors?

The Motley Fool stated that Alphabet spent $51 billion on capital expenditure in the third quarter, enough to push its free cash flow below zero for the period.

Alphabet did not buy back any Class A or Class C shares in the first nine months of 2026, and its $70 billion buyback program still had $69.5 billion left as of September 30. By comparison, the company spent about $62 billion on buybacks in 2024.

Instead, Alphabet raised cash in the third quarter. It brought in about $12.4 billion by selling shares through an at-the-market program and $28.7 billion by selling senior unsecured notes.

Alphabet’s shares fell 17.5% in October, according to S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) Market Intelligence data. Investors were concerned about the negative free cash flow and about Google Search losing ground to rivals such as ChatGPT.

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