The 10 Biggest Tech Company Layoffs Of 2025

While tech companies continue to turn to layoffs as a way to optimize their businesses as they face a changing technology environment along with economic uncertainties caused in part by constantly shifting priorities out of Washington, D.C., employees are also increasingly being let go as AI starts to take their place. CRN looks at 10 of the most significant tech layoffs that have helped define the employment environment in 2025.

While the typical business will tell you its most important asset is its people, that asset, at least in the tech arena, seems to be more and more at risk from layoffs.

As of December 19, there have been a total of 122,549 tech employees laid off at 257 tech companies so far in 2025, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks tech company layoffs. The previous year, the site reported a little more than 152,000 tech employees laid off at 551 tech companies.

Businesses need to optimize operations, shift company priorities, or manage economic uncertainties. This is especially true this year as those companies faced a number of economic headwinds beyond their control, including Trump administration tariff changes and government spending cuts that make it hard to plan for the future.

In a growing number of cases, the siren call of AI is also starting to have an impact on the tech workforce. Tech companies including Amazon, Salesforce, and IBM in 2025 all cited the ability of AI to take over an increasing number of job functions as the reasons to lay off parts of their workforce.

CRN looks at 10 of the most important tech layoffs for all of 2025, with a focus on layoffs in companies whose businesses impact indirect channels. Therefore, while a company like Rivian or Just Eat may announce significant cuts to their internal IT teams, those are not included in this list.

CRN based its list on the actual number of layoffs where available or, alternatively on announced layoff plans. That means the final number of employees laid off is subject to change, either as cuts go farther than expected or as businesses add new employees.

Also, this list of tech layoffs is focused on absolute numbers of employees whose positions were eliminated, not on how big the impacts on the companies as a whole are.

Dylan Martin, Mark Haranas, Kyle Alspach, Steven Burke, O’Ryan Johnson, Gina Narcisi, and Wade Millward all contributed to this story.

10. Google: ‘Thousands’ of employees

Google in October reportedly laid off Google Cloud employees as the tech giant’s cloud business unit continues to shatter sales and operating income records quarter after quarter. Those layoffs affected workers in user experience roles, such as employees tasked with working on design and user experience (UX) research, according to a report by Business Insider and several LinkedIn posts seen by CRN.

This followed earlier layoffs in the year from Google, including a move in April to lay off hundreds of employees from its platforms and devices unit, according to TheStreet.com. That division had about 25,000 full-time employees and is tasked with developing Google devices and applications including Android, Pixel, and Chrome. That followed another round in February when the company laid off several employees in its cloud and human resources teams, TheStreet.com reported. Other employees were likely terminated when Google implemented its return to the office policy for employees living within 50 miles of an office location.

9. HP Inc.: Up to 2,000 employees

HP Inc. in late February unveiled plans to lay off up to 2,000 employees and incur approximately $150 million in restructuring costs as the company looked toward possible headwinds from tariffs as well as PC market competition. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based PC and printer maker said the job cuts should save the company an additional $300 million as part of its Future Ready program designed to restructure the company for efficiency.

HP at the time said it expected “gross workforce reductions of approximately 1,000 to 2,000 employees” across its global workforce – reported as 58,000 in 2024 – according to an SEC filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Going forward, HPE plans to lay off 4,000 to 6,000 employees by 2028 as it ramps up its AI efforts, the company said during its fiscal fourth quarter 2025 financial conference call.

8. HPE: 3,000 employees

Hewlett Packard Enterprise in March unveiled plans to reduce its workforce by five percent, or about 2,500 employees, over the following 12 months to 18 months, and that another 500 employees would be let go through attrition. The job cuts are part of a $350 million cost reduction program slated to be implemented over the next two years. HPE had 61,000 employees at the end of its last fiscal year.

HPE CEO Antonio Neri told analysts at the time that the layoffs and expected attrition will better align the company’s cost structure to business mix and long-term strategy. The cost reduction program came as HPE grapples with server margin pressure, the impact of tariffs, and a decision at the time by the U.S. Department of Justice to challenge HPE’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, an acquisition that has since closed.

7. Meta: 3,600 employees

Meta, parent company of Facebook, in January unveiled a plan to lay off about 5 percent of its staff, or about 3,600 employees, according to Reuters and several media outlets.

Meta termed the layoffs “performance terminations,” and said the layoff notices were sent to “underperforming employees” in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa, with employees in a few countries exempted because of local regulations.

Notices were sent in February.

6. Salesforce: 4,000 employees

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in August told the Logan Bartlett podcast that his company has cut 4,000 of its customer personnel, according to multiple news sources including CBNC. Benioff said he doesn’t need as many humans doing customer support because of the company’s increased AI-based Agentforce customer service bots.

Benioff in June said up to 50 percent of Salesforce’s workloads are now being handled by AI, a move NBC said left many of Salesforce’s employees nervous about their jobs in the face of increased use of AI.

5. TCS: 12,000 employees

One of the world's largest IT services providers, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), said in August it is raising the salaries for most of its workforce after recently unveiling plans to lay off 12,000 employees.

“We can confirm that we will be issuing wage hikes to around 80 percent of our employees effective Sept. 1, 2025,” said TCS in an email to CRN.

TCS CEO K Krithivasan said the 12,000 job cuts are not due to artificial intelligence. “This is not because of AI giving some 20 percent productivity gains,” Krithivasan said in a recent statement. “This is driven by where there is a skill mismatch or where we think we have not been able to deploy someone.”

The 12,000 layoffs at TCS will be implemented throughout fiscal year 2026. The cuts will impact mainly mid- to senior-level professionals.

4. Amazon: 14,000 employees

Amazon in October confirmed that it will lay off 14,000 corporate employees as part of major organizational changes across the tech giant. That confirmation came after reports earlier in the month that the company was planning to lay off as many as 30,000 employees.

Regarding why the $168 billion Seattle-based tech giant is “reducing roles” when the company is performing well, Beth Galetti, senior vice president of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, pointed to AI innovation in a letter to employees.

“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet,” Galetti said. “It’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before [in existing market segments and new ones].”

3. Microsoft: 15,000 employees

Microsoft in July unveiled a second round of layoffs for 2025, this time planning to cut about 9,000 employees, including an undisclosed number of managers and salespeople. This is less than 4 percent of Microsoft’s global workforce.

Microsoft in May laid off over 6,000 employees, layoffs reportedly focused on product and engineering positions

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson was quoted as saying by multiple news outlets.

2. Verizon: 15,000

Carrier giant Verizon in November said it is preparing to cut 15,000 jobs, or about 15 percent of its workforce, as part of reported restructuring efforts. The layoffs would mark the largest round of job cuts for the telecom giant, according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

The cuts follow Verizon’s move to bring on former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as its new CEO in October, replacing Hans Vestberg, the company’s leader for the last eight years. Schulman, for his part, promised big changes during the carrier’s Q3 2025 earnings call last month. “We will aggressively transform our culture, our cost structure, and the financial profile of Verizon in order to put our customers first, compete effectively, and deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders,” Schulman said in a statement issued at the time of the carrier’s Q3 2025 earnings.

1. Intel: 21,000 employees

Intel in July said it plans to end the year with a core workforce of about 75,000 employees via layoffs and attrition. That means Intel, which as of last December had 108,900 employees, according to an SEC filing, will shed about a quarter of its workers within a single year.

Intel during its second fiscal quarter 2025 financial report said it is in the process of laying off about 15 percent of its workforce as part of a previously announced plan to “create a faster-moving, flatter and more agile organization.”

The expected workforce reduction is coming after Intel cut its workforce by 15 percent last year between layoffs, buyouts and early retirement packages.