Tech layoffs of 2025: Which company is leading the charts?

While we are only halfway through it, the year 2025 is already shaping up to be another brutal year for the global tech workforce. 

Despite the mass layoffs of 2022 and 2023, tech companies are still trimming headcounts, citing restructuring, economic pressures, and the rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) as reasons.

However, when we take a closer look, it seems like "AI" is becoming more of an excuse than an actual reason behind these massive job cuts.

“Laying off workers because of AI is more of a fashionable excuse than a real business imperative,” a recent study suggested.

That said, with over 100,000 tech employees laid off so far this year, Intel currently leads the layoff charts in 2025, followed by Microsoft, Meta, and Google.

Biggest tech layoffs of 2025

Here's a deeper look at the biggest layoff of the year 2025.

Intel tops the list with over 21,000 job cuts

Intel, once a dominant name in the semiconductor industry, is currently undergoing one of the most aggressive restructuring efforts in its history. Every other day, we get to hear the news about job cuts at the company.

In April 2025, Intel announced plans to lay off more than 21,000 employees, equivalent to nearly 20% of its global workforce. 

These cuts largely impacted Intel Foundry Services, the company’s contract chip manufacturing arm, as part of a broader effort to reduce costs and refocus on profitability under newly appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

It should be noted that these layoffs were triggered by continued financial underperformance, especially a poor Q3 2024 earnings report and underwhelming automotive chip sales. 

The layoffs are reportedly just the beginning of a multi-phase downsizing that might continue into late 2025.

Microsoft streamlines with role reductions

Coming close to Intel, Microsoft has laid off around 10,000 workers across its cloud, gaming, and hardware divisions. Although the company began its reductions in 2023, its 2025 strategy focuses on flattening management layers and boosting the engineer-to-manager ratio.

The company aims to increase efficiency by reallocating resources to AI-driven development, product engineering, and core services.

These layoffs reflect CEO Satya Nadella’s broader goal of keeping Microsoft engineering-focused in a highly competitive AI landscape.

Meta’s 8,000 performance-based layoffs

Meta entered 2025 with a workforce of around 72,000. In January, it began trimming 5% of its staff, approximately 3,600 employees, under the banner of “performance-based” layoff.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who declared 2023 the “Year of Efficiency,” is continuing that mantra this year, but the focus has shifted from mass downsizing to raising the internal talent bar.

However, unlike traditional layoffs, Meta’s cuts targeted its lowest performers based on internal rankings. The company also remains focused on AI and metaverse projects and is reportedly hiring aggressively in AI and data infrastructure.

Google’s quiet layoffs continue

Alphabet-owned Google has also joined the layoff trend; however, more quietly than its rival. The search giant has made multiple small to medium-sized cuts in 2025, including “hundreds” of roles in its Platforms and Devices (P&D) division, as well as job reductions in its Cloud business.

Google’s strategy centres on team mergers and role overlap eliminations, particularly after reorganising its Android, Pixel, and Chrome divisions into a unified P&D group.

Amazon and Apple remain cautious

Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud tech giant, having already cut 27,000 roles in 2022–2023, made only minor layoffs in early 2025. A few dozen employees were laid off from its “Communications and Sustainability teams” as part of an internal reorganisation.

On the other hand, Apple has continued to resist large-scale layoffs, preferring hiring freezes and internal reshuffling. Its only notable layoffs occurred back in 2023, impacting its retail and recruiting teams.

That said, for now, the Cupertino-based tech giant remains the lone big tech player not fully participating in mass layoffs.

Blue Origin and HP

It is worth noting that the tech layoffs in 2025 are not limited to traditional software firms. 

Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's space company, laid off over 1,000 employees due to shifting project scopes, including changes in its lunar lander programme.

Additionally, Hewlett-Packard (HP), amid ongoing restructuring under its “Future Ready” plan, eliminated around 2,000 jobs this year as part of a broader 4,000–6,000 reduction target through 2025.