- Apple laid off 600 employees linked to discontinued electric car project.
- Layoffs were confirmed by mandatory notice to California
- Layoffs may also be partially related to the cancelled microLED display project.
This development came to light through a mandatory notice that Apple issued to the state of California, confirming its plans to permanently terminate 600 employees. As per California law, employers like Apple are required to provide a 60-day notice to employees and state representatives prior to initiating a mass layoff event.
The assumption that these employees were formerly associated with the project is supported by the fact that they are located in several Apple-occupied buildings around Santa Clara, California. These buildings are in close proximity to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.
As per MacRumors, many of these buildings were previously believed to be connected with the Apple Car project. This link between the listed employees and the buildings where they were stationed serves as confirmation that the layoffs are related to Apple’s discontinued car project.
The project was officially cancelled by the iPhone maker in March, and a workforce of approximately 2,000 employees assigned to the Apple Car was informed about the project’s termination at that time. Subsequently, Apple reassigned some of those 2,000 employees to work on its project departments related to artificial intelligence (AI) — under the supervision of John Giannandrea — and others.
The remaining employees were given 90 days to apply for open positions within the company. However, since the Apple Car project’s workforce specialized in hardware engineering and car design, these employees may not have had skills applicable to other projects.
Recently, the company also halted the development of its in-house microLED displays, suggesting that the current layoff may be partially related to this discontinued project.
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