Over the past two weeks, Google Cloud employees have been affected by layoffs, including Google’s Threat Intelligence Group and other teams. A spokesperson said the company is evaluating structures to meet customer and industry demands, while it cited reinvest
By the time some Google Cloud employees logged onto LinkedIn to post about what happened. the cuts had already been underway for days. People familiar with the matter said employees working at Google Cloud were hit by layoffs over the last two weeks. with additional disruption spreading across security teams and units tied to the wider Cloud business.
One team affected was Google’s Threat Intelligence Group. described by the people familiar with the matter as one of Google’s top security units and known for publishing research about hackers. Those employees were impacted yesterday. according to the same people. and some of them later shared posts about the layoffs on LinkedIn.
The reductions didn’t stay confined to that group. The cuts also affected other parts of Google Cloud, including teams tied to Mandiant, the cybersecurity company Google bought in 2022, the people said.
The exact number of employees impacted, and the precise reason the layoffs are being carried out now, remain unclear. In one instance, Google cited the need to reinvest in growth areas such as AI to justify the move, one of the people said.
A Google spokesperson said, “We regularly evaluate our internal structures to ensure we are best positioned to meet the evolving demands of our customers and the industry.”
The timing lands amid a wider round of job cuts across Big Tech as companies spend billions pushing deeper into AI. Meta laid off 10% of its staff last month. Earlier this year, companies including Coinbase and Block used AI to justify large cuts.
Cybersecurity has not been spared, either. Cloudflare laid off more than 1,100 employees earlier last month as it prepares for the “agentic AI era.”
Google Cloud’s staffing reductions have not all been sudden. Last year, Google Cloud quietly let go of some staff, mostly in user experience roles, Business Insider reported.
MISRYOUM
Google Cloud layoffs Threat Intelligence Group Mandiant Google spokesperson cybersecurity jobs AI reinvestment Big Tech layoffs agentic AI era
Threat Intelligence got cut and suddenly everybody’s shocked? Like hackers don’t exist.
This reads like they cut people to “reinvest in AI” but then act surprised customers are mad. If the Threat Intel team is gone, doesn’t that make us less safe? Or am I misunderstanding the whole thing.
Wait so they were laying people off for days BEFORE they went on LinkedIn? That’s wild. I’m not even in tech but I feel like security should be the last thing you touch. Also Mandiant stuff too?? I swear every week it’s another “top unit” getting trimmed.
Google always says it’s about customer demand but it’s really about cutting costs, plain and simple. “Reinvest in growth areas such as AI” sounds like the same excuse as when I bought something and they blamed it on inflation. I thought Mandiant was like their whole cybersecurity brain so idk how cutting teams helps. Probably part of that agentic AI era thing someone mentioned, like robots are gonna do the analyzing… maybe.