Google has offered voluntary exit packages to some staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland since June.

The move, reported by Reuters today, widens a scheme that the company had already run in the US and the UK.

Google confirmed the expansion to Reuters, which could not establish how many people have taken up the offers. The Swiss details come from three people familiar with the matter.

“In 2025, some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters. “

This past summer, in June, we expanded this program globally in a few countries to support our important work ahead.”

Earlier rounds left out Google Cloud and DeepMind, the company's AI research unit, and this one appears to follow the same pattern.

Finance chief Anat Ashkenazi has often named AI and cloud as the areas where Google wants to keep hiring. The cloud unit also saw its revenue double in the third quarter.

Switzerland gives the clearest picture so far. Google has about 5,000 staff there, and a large engineering hub in Zurich, and the Swiss scheme covered several divisions but excluded DeepMind, the three people said.

Google announced the Swiss packages in mid-June and gave applicants an answer by mid-July. The first employees then left in August, according to the people.

Leavers got one month's pay for each year worked, capped at a year's salary. In one team of roughly 50, at least four people signed up, one of the sources said.

Google first offered buyouts in some US divisions in 2025 and has since extended them to more teams, including its global business organisation in February.

Executives have pitched the scheme as an option for staff who no longer feel in tune with how fast, or where, the company is moving.

Reuters reported that Google has, at least once, followed buyout offers in a division with job cuts. In Switzerland, the company laid off more than 200 people in 2023, which led to staff protests and a walkout.

Rivals are making similar moves. Last week, Microsoft offered buyouts to 60,000 employees, while Alphabet this week returned to the debt market with a €6bn bond sale as investors weigh its AI spending.