The Morning After: Alphabet cuts jobs at its moonshot labs
The company is also trying to make it easier to spin out projects.
Mere days after Alphabet and Google CEO Sudar Pichai warned of more job attrition this year, the company is shedding more staff, at its moonshot lab. Alphabet is also restructuring X (not to be confused with what used to be called Twitter) to make it easier to spin out projects with backing (read: money) from outside investors.
X division head Astro Teller told staff in a memo that the company was “expanding our approach to focus on spinning out more projects as independent companies funded through market-based capital.”
X has attempted to tackle bigger-picture challenges and problems worldwide, like climate change, the future of the internet and cybersecurity, but it hasn’t found consistent success through its spinoff businesses. The company hopes this could refocus heady ideas into those with a future.
— Mat Smith
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