Apple Lays Off Over 600 Employees After Closing Its EV Project

Apple is laying off 614 workers in California after it shuttered the car project which was internally known as Project Titan, as per a new state filing. The news comes after the company announced internally last month that they will be shutting down their car project which reportedly started back in 2014. As per the state filing, the affected workers were associated with eight different facilities in Santa Clara, as per the WARN notice posted by California, via CNBC.

The employees were informed of the job cuts on March 28, 2024. The changes are effective May 27, as per the filing. This is the Cupertino giant's first job cut since the pandemic as the company wasn't forced to downsize because of earlier careful recruitment. While the notice did not mention the reason behind the job cuts, it did say that none of the locations are at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters but in smaller satellite offices. 

As per reports, the company is eliminating positions like machine shop managers, hardware engineers, and product design engineers, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Last month, the company internally announced that their software team led by executive Dan Dodge in Ottawa, a cloud engineering and software group overseen by Libo Meyers, and a software project management team led by Vera Carr will move to Craig Federighi's software department to focus on Apple's core operating systems.

"If it is true, Apple will put more focus on GenAI, and that should give investors more optimism about the company's efforts and ability to compete at a platform level on AI," said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of consulting firm Creative Strategies.

Many experts supported the decision, emphasizing the need for big companies like Apple to focus on AI, "Shifting resources toward generative AI is the right call given the long-term profitability potential of AI revenue streams versus cars," said Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Anyrag Rana and Andrew Girard. The layoffs mark the end of Apple's decade-long efforts after Ian Goodfellow, a prominent scientist who led the machine-learning division within Project Titan, left the company in 2022. 

Experts highlighted several reasons why the tech giant decided to scrap their EV project, including the major factor that the project was constantly changing with no set plan or approach. Other reasons included lack of leadership, extensive R&D costs, and the fact that the EV market is slowly stagnating due to poor charging infrastructure. While the company's R&D costs in the auto space are unknown, Apple has reported spending over $30 billion on total research and development back in 2023.

Now, the company is doubling down on AI initiatives which is going to be a huge part of the company's highly anticipated software update, iOS 18. As per Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, "[It will be] one of the biggest iOS updates — if not the biggest — in the company’s history."

Siri, the company's AI assistant is set to get a revamp and the company is also hoping to compete with Google's Pixel phones and Samsung Galaxy phones, which too boast great AI features. Meanwhile, reports had it that Apple has acquired over 32 AI companies in 2023.