Alphabet's AI-focused DeepMind division saw a 40% cut in employee costs last year
Published: 18:16 11 Oct 2023 EDT
DeepMind, the AI lab owned by Google-parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), cut its employee costs by nearly 40% last year, according to a recent filing with a UK government agency.
In the company’s 2022 fiscal year, staff costs and related expenses were roughly $731 million, compared to nearly $1.2 billion in 2021, according to the filing. DeepMind’s profit in 2022 was about $74.9 million, similarly down nearly 40% from roughly $126 million a year earlier.
On the heels of those cuts, DeepMind announced in January that it would close its first-ever artificial intelligence (AI) research office in Edmonton, Alberta.
In September, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced his intention to “make the company 20% more productive,” which has manifested in significant layoffs, reductions in hiring, along with smaller travel and entertainment budgets, according to reports.
On the company’s first-quarter earnings call this year, DeepBrain and fellow AI-focused unit Google Brain were lumped together in sharing “pooled computational resources.”
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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