Going against the trend, Google adds more than 10,000 employees

Google is hiring, not firing

Google's latest quarterly report says the company had 204,757 employees worldwide at the end of September. That is 10,089 more than the 194,668 it reported in March. Google did not say why its headcount grew. Business Insider reports that part of the increase came from company acquisitions, such as the purchase of cybersecurity firm Wiz, which brought about 2,000 staff.

Key numbers

• Employees: 204,757 at the end of September, up 10,089 since March.
• Free cash flow: negative $9.07 billion, worse than analysts had expected.
• Capital spending forecast for the year: kept at $195 billion to $205 billion.
• Alphabet (Google's parent company) stock fell 13% on October 29, wiping out $482 billion in market value in one day.

A different path from other tech firms

Google cut 12,000 jobs, about 6% of its workforce, in January 2023. Since then it has made smaller layoffs, but its total headcount has still grown. CNBC notes this is the opposite of rivals like Meta, which has laid off thousands of workers in several rounds, and Microsoft, which offered 60,000 employees voluntary leave this week. These companies are trying to slim down so they can spend more on AI.

Why it matters

Google is betting heavily on AI, but investors are starting to doubt whether that spending will pay off. Reuters reports that people may now search more outside Google, and its Gemini chatbot is seen as behind ChatGPT and Claude. If Google's core search business keeps struggling, its big AI investments will be harder to justify.