Google is quietly laying off employees in its cloud department.

Two sources familiar with the matter have told the media that employees working at Google Cloud have been laid off in the past two weeks. The sources said that one of Google's top security departments, the Threat Intelligence team that regularly releases hacker research reports, was also affected yesterday. Some employees have posted on LinkedIn discussing the layoffs. They added that this round of layoffs is not limited to that department, but also affects Mandiant, a cybersecurity company acquired by Google in 2022, as well as other teams within Google Cloud. It is not yet clear how many people have been affected and why the layoffs are happening at this time. One source said that in one case, Google defended the layoffs by stating that they needed to reallocate resources to areas of growth such as artificial intelligence. A spokesperson for Google said that the company "regularly evaluates internal structures to ensure that we can best address the evolving needs of customers and the industry."