So far in February 2025, notable R&D-related job cuts keep coming at companies ranging from Boeing, which is responding in part to delays and cost pressures in NASA’s Artemis program and Cruise, the GM-acquired robotaxi firm. The layoffs aren’t limited to aerospace and automotive. As January concluded, Teradyne’s robotics division layoffs (140 positions, 10% workforce reduction) punctuate a month marked by significant restructuring across research-intensive sectors. The robotics group’s consolidation, which reduces operational breakeven from $440M to $365M, exemplifies broader industry trends toward operational efficiency and strategic realignment.
Build, cut, scale: Tech’s 2025 trifecta for AI dominance
[Adobe Stock]
The allure of FAANG careers has diminished significantly by 2025 as tech giants prioritize AI-driven efficiency over workforce stability. “Time to go back and get a Ph.D. in AI,” quipped a tech worker on the site Blind. “Regular tech is either dead or getting offshored.” Another user replied: “A Ph.D. in AI will be even more dead. Everyone and their mom is doing it now. Lot fewer roles than [software engineering] ultimately.” In any case, China is changing the AI landscape. Even as Meta undergoes performance-based cuts, its engineers are reverse-engineering how the Chinese startup DeepSeek achieved ChatGPT o1-level performance at reportedly a fraction of the cost using novel techniques like sparse Mixture-of-Experts architectures and synthetic data optimization. Meta plans to invest $60-65 billion in AI infrastructure for 2025 – including a data center that could cover roughly half of Manhattan, with a 2+ gigawatt capacity, and more than 1.3 million GPUs by year-end. At the same time, it is cutting 5% of low-performing staff. Microsoft, too, is undergoing a similar AI pivot, complete with massive investments and workforce restructuring. It has allocated $80 to AI data centers while also announcing performance-based job cuts. Its CEO Satya Nadella has described a sort of evolution from SaaS to Service-as-Software – with AI agents potentially core.
Over the month, research-intensive fields continued to trim their workforces in a wave of restructuring. The largest layoffs in raw numbers came from BP (4,700 employees + 3,000 contractors) and Amazon (1,900 jobs) while making smaller corporate cuts in Seattle (dozens) and Washington (200). Meta is shedding 5% of its staff (3,600 roles) while redirecting investments toward AI R&D, hinting that AI may soon be good enough to do the work of mid-level engineers. The a strategic pivot is also mirrored by Google, which shed 60 cloud positions as it sharpens its AI focus.
The biotech sector saw particularly brutal cuts: Zentalis axed 40% of its staff to prioritize cancer drug trials, while IGM Biosciences laid off 73% of employees after halting autoimmune programs. In aerospace, Pratt & Whitney streamlined globally as SolarEdge (400 layoffs) and Renesas Electronics (1,000 cuts) grappled with energy market volatility and semiconductor slumps. Microsoft’s ongoing “silent layoffs” and DigitalOcean’s engineering cuts highlighted tech’s relentless efficiency drive in recent years.
Even CRISPR pioneer Scribe Therapeutics (CRISPR pioneers) wasn’t spared while AI-focused firm Unbabel (AI translation) also reduced its team. With 65% of Barinthus Biotherapeutics’ staff gone and Biogen shifting neuroscience R&D to external partnerships, as EndpointsNews has reported.
[Last updated on February 7]
Building on the significant wave of layoffs documented in our 2024 roundup (which documented 200,000 layoffs across 101 major companies), the table below highlights the most recent R&D and tech-focused cuts announced in 2025—ranging from biotech to software companies and carbon capture innovators.
Stay tuned for regular updates, and if you’re hearing about other significant workforce shifts, send us a tip.
Trends in layoffs for R&D-relevant sectors—Manufacturing, Information, Professional & Business Services, and Health Care & Social Assistance—from December 2023 to December 2024 (preliminary). Data are seasonally adjusted layoffs levels (in thousands) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 5.
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