Alphabet’s division dedicated to developing new technologies is letting go of dozens of employees, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
X Lab is restructuring its organizational structure to facilitate the easier spin-out of its projects from the division with backing from Alphabet and other investors. Support staff members were the primary targets of the layoffs.
“X tackles global challenges like climate change and connectivity and we continually look for ways to streamline how we bring our moonshots to life,” X lab spokeswoman told Reuters.
Alphabet’s research section, X Lab, works on unique ideas like “Taara,” which uses light beams to offer internet services to remote parts of the world. It gave rise to Wing, a drone delivery business, Waymo, a self-driving tech company, and Verily Life Sciences, a health tech venture.
According to the report, it has lately held financial discussions with venture capitalists, sovereign wealth funds, and private equity companies.
The move on Monday came days after Google indicated it would let off hundreds of people in its advertising sales team and its hardware, Voice Assistant and augmented reality teams amid its relentless push to slash costs and improve productivity.
