Alphabet-Owned Intrinsic Lays Off 20% of Workforce

The news comes about a month after the company announced that it was purchasing Open Robotics’ commercial division.

Intrinsic

Intrinsic executives, from left to right: Kartik Venkataraman, head of engineering applications; Wendy Tan White, CEO; and Scott Phoenix, chief product and revenue officer.

Email Sign Up

Get news, papers, media and research delivered. Sign up for our free newsletters.

Stay up-to-date with news and resources you need to do your job. Research industry trends, compare companies and get weekly market intelligence with Robotics 24/7.

Alphabet's robotic subsidiary Intrinsic Innovation LLC has laid off 40 employees, which makes up about 20% of its workforce. The Information broke the news and was backed up by multiple sources including TechCrunch, which received a statement from the company.

“Intrinsic’s leadership has made the difficult decision to let go a number of our team members,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We have communicated the news directly with them. We fully acknowledge how hard this will be and are offering as much proactive support as possible.”

Alphabet's X Development LLC innovation unit launched Intrinsic in 2021. The Google Inc. parent company said at the time that Intrinsic would develop software to give industrial robots "the ability to sense, learn, and automaticly make adjustments as they're completing tasks, so they work in a wider range of settings and applications."

Layoffs come after recent acquisitions

Intrinsic told TechCrunch it was making the decision as part of “shifts in prioritization and our longer-term strategic direction.”

The news comes about a month after the company announced that it had acquired Open Source Robotics Corp. (OSRC), Open Robotics’ commercial division, for an undisclosed amount. In April 2022, Intrinsic purchased robotic software company Vicarious.

The Alphabet unit added the layoffs “will ensure Intrinsic can continue to allocate resources to our highest-priority initiatives, such as building our software and AI platform, integrating the recent strategic acquisitions of Vicarious and OSRC (commercial arm Open Robotics), and working with key industry partners.”

Intrinsic joins downward tech trend

Intrinsic is the latest in a long line of technology companies to announce staff cuts in the past few months.

Verily Life Sciences, another Alphabet-owned subsidiary, announced earlier this week it was cutting 15% of its workforce, affecting about 240 people.

Some other robotics players that have announced layoffs in the past six months include Amazon Robotics, Pudu Robotics, Shopify (parent of 6 River Systems), Nuro Inc., and Starship Technologies.

Amazon, Meta, Netflix: Why Big Tech Is Facing Massive Layoffs | WSJ

About the Author

Cesareo Contreras

Associate Editor, Robotics 24/7

Cesareo Contreras was associate editor at Robotics 24/7. Prior to working at Peerless Media, he was an award-winning reporter at the Metrowest Daily News and Milford Daily News in Massachusetts. Contreras is a graduate of Framingham State University and has a keen interest in the human side of emerging technologies.

Alphabet-Owned Intrinsic Lays Off 20% of Workforce