Dropbox plans to lay off 16% of its global workforce as it seeks to develop new AI projects.
The cloud storage company will hire new talent, with an emphasis on AI and product development in the early stages, as it seeks to grow its AI division.
- Dropbox's CEO, Drew Houston, said the workforce reduction comes amid a slowdown in its cloud growth and the arrival of "the AI era of computing."
- Despite being profitable, Houston said Dropbox is moving pre-emptively to reduce its workforce and invest in new areas for growth, such as AI.
- "I'm determined to ensure that Dropbox is at the forefront of the AI era, just as we were at the forefront of the shift to mobile and the cloud," Houston said . "We'll need all hands on deck as machine intelligence gives us the tools to reimagine our existing businesses and invent new ones."
- The announcement marks the company's first mass job reductions since January 2021, when it laid off 315 workers.
- Dropbox is expected to incur charges of $37M to $42M related to the job cuts.
- At the end of 2022, Dropbox had 3,118 full-time employees worldwide, including 2,583 in the U.S.