Google Self-Driving Unit Waymo Cuts Jobs As Parent Shifts Gears To Focus On AI

Google parent Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL GOOG self-driving startup Waymo slashed dozens of jobs as its parent cuts spending and sharpens its focus on artificial intelligence.

What Happened: The second round of job cuts this year was confirmed by the company. Waymo cut some engineering roles and moved to rebalance headcount in order to take a more financially disciplined approach to the current year, reported Bloomberg, quoting an email from the company.

The total number of employees that have lost their jobs at Waymo this year now amounts to more than 200, which accounts for almost 8% of the self-driving unit’s workforce, reported Bloomberg, citing The Information.

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Why It Matters: In January, Alphabet announced 12,000 job cuts — the layoffs took place in a backdrop of similar headcount slashing at other major tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Twitter.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Google is grappling with Microsoft-backed OpenAi's ChatGPT, which has emerged as a rival to the latter’s dominance in search.

Google has tested a chatbot called “Apprentice Bard” and worked on a project under its cloud unit called “Atlas” to respond to ChatGPT.

Price Action: On Wednesday, Alphabet’s Class A shares closed 0.3% higher at $90.36 in the regular session, while the company’s Class C shares ended the day 0.2% up, according to data from Benzinga Pro data.
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