Google has expanded voluntary employee buyout offers to select staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland as the company seeks to control costs while continuing to spend heavily on artificial intelligence (AI).

It comes as Alphabet faces growing investor scrutiny over the cost of its AI expansion. The company has been shifting resources toward AI and cloud computing while its overall workforce has continued to grow in recent quarters.

Google has been using voluntary exits as a way to realign its workforce.

Similar programmes were introduced last year in parts of the US and UK, with executives describing them as an option for employees who no longer felt aligned with the company’s pace or direction. In at least one instance, a voluntary exit programme was reportedly followed by layoffs in the same division.

The latest offers also appear to preserve Google’s focus on AI. Employees in Google Cloud and its AI research unit DeepMind had been excluded from previous buyout programmes. DeepMind employees were excluded this time too.

In Switzerland, where Google employs around 5,000 people and operates a major engineering hub in Zurich, the programme covered several divisions.

Employees were offered packages in June, with responses due by mid-July and departures beginning in August. Those who accepted received one month’s salary for every year of service, capped at 12 months. At least four employees in one team of about 50 reportedly accepted the offer.

The Swiss programme comes three years after Google cut more than 200 jobs in the country, triggering staff protests and a walkout.

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