EquitiesMarket noteWednesday 30 September 2026, 21:40
Apple kept its staff while its rivals cut jobs for AI. Its new chief wants a leaner Apple
Oracle, Amazon and Microsoft have cut thousands of jobs and named AI as a reason. Apple cut just over 200. John Ternus now wants fewer managers and flat headcount, and he has looked at what AI could do instead.
By The Notebook Desk
John Ternus, who became Apple’s chief executive on 1 September, is moving to overhaul the company so that it builds products faster and runs with fewer people, Bloomberg reported on 29 September. While he still ran hardware engineering, he told staff that Apple “should hire fewer people, ask more of its existing engineers, and reduce organizational bloat”, MacRumors reported. He showed a slide of the company’s yearly headcount growth and argued that Apple should do more with fewer employees.
The first cuts have begun. Over the past two weeks Apple has started to dismiss directors and engineering programme managers, who have a few weeks to find other roles inside the company. Early plans for 2027 hold staffing flat, trim planned budget increases and reduce marketing spending. Some employees expect more layoffs later this year and early next year.
The exception among the giants
Apple has been the exception in big tech. Its staff grew from about 161,000 full-time equivalents in September 2023 to about 166,000 two years later, according to its 2023 and 2025 annual reports. Its cuts this year have been small: just over 200 jobs in August, in teams that worked on the Vision Pro headset, on Siri, which Apple is rebuilding on a new technical base, and on some AI features, Business Today reported, citing Bloomberg.
Its rivals went the other way. Oracle’s workforce fell by 21,000, or 13%, in the year to May, and the company cited AI in its annual filing, CNBC reported. Amazon confirmed 16,000 corporate job cuts in January, which completed a plan for about 30,000 since October, Reuters reported. Andy Jassy, its chief executive, had said in June 2025 that AI would reduce the company’s office staff in the coming years. Microsoft cut 4,800 jobs in July, 2.1% of its staff, and said that “AI is changing how work gets done”.
The pattern is wider than tech. US employers cited AI for 116,175 announced job cuts from January to August, about 22% of the total and the most common reason this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Technology companies announced 155,126 cuts in the same months, 52% more than a year earlier.
Behind in AI
Apple’s problem is that it is behind. In January it said that the next generation of its own AI models would be based on Google’s Gemini. “After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation,” the two companies said. For a company that designs its own chips and software, relying on a rival for the core of Siri is a large admission.
A round of cuts tied to AI would send a message to investors: that Apple now uses the technology inside its own business, as its peers say they do, and not only in its products. Ternus has looked at it. He has “explored how artificial intelligence could accelerate product development and perform work currently handled by employees”, Bloomberg reported, according to Macworld.
He has also stepped back from it once. Over the summer Apple drew up a plan to lay off some 5,000 AppleCare support staff and use AI agents for phone and web support. It “ultimately put those plans on hold and isn’t currently looking to take such a step”, Bloomberg reported.
Leaner, but not yet for AI
So far the new Apple looks leaner more than it looks automated. The cuts hit managers and layers between engineers and the top, and the plan for 2027 is flat headcount rather than a smaller one. That is a real change for a company that has avoided layoffs for years, but it is not yet the move its peers made.
The next sign comes soon. Apple’s annual report, which last year it filed on 31 October, will give its headcount at the end of September, the first under Ternus. If the AppleCare plan returns, or if AI starts to appear in the reasons Apple gives for cuts, Apple will have joined the rest of big tech.
Disclosure
This is analysis and opinion, not investment advice.