Microsoft-owned GitHub lays off 80% of its employees in India

Even offshored jobs are feeling the heat as companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline operations and trim their workforce. The latest instance is Microsoft-owned GitHub, which is laying off a significant portion of its Indian employees. According to the Times of India, GitHub is cutting 80% of its staff in India.

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke discussed this major decision in an interview with the publication. He cited restructuring efforts as the primary reason for the layoffs in 2023, emphasizing that economic factors affecting specific product areas within the Indian team played a crucial role.

“The layoffs aren’t a reflection on India itself but rather the specific projects these employees were assigned to. It was a difficult decision, but not one taken lightly. Fortunately, many of the impacted employees, originally from Microsoft, possessed skillsets that allowed Microsoft to re-hire them. While the process wasn’t ideal, we remain incredibly enthusiastic about the potential of the Indian market,” Dohmke explained.

Addressing concerns that AI might challenge Indian IT giants as businesses automate traditionally outsourced tasks, Dohmke expressed a more optimistic view. He believes AI will elevate Indian IT companies to new heights rather than disrupt them. “We’re dealing with an ever-growing amount of software in the system. No company I’ve encountered deletes more code than they write each day; the complexity keeps increasing,” he said.

“We’re constantly maintaining and updating software, adapting to the latest technology. With AI systems, we’re entering a new level of complexity, requiring even more software developers, especially in India,” Dohmke added. GitHub projects that the developer community in India will surpass that of the United States, currently at 21 million, by 2027.

“About 200,000 computer science graduates are emerging from engineering degrees annually, creating a convergence. India could lead not only in software but also in AI. Children and adults alike will learn to code in their native language, leading to a prolonged groundswell of developers,” Dohmke said in his interview with Times of India.

GitHub has witnessed a surge in Indian users in recent years, adding 2.2 million developers and bringing the total number of Indian developers on the platform to a staggering 15.4 million.

Founded in February 2008 by Chris Wanstrath, P. J. Hyett, Tom Preston-Werner, and Scott Chacon, GitHub is a popular code-repository service utilized by many developers and large companies to store code and collaborate. GitHub claims to have about 27 million users, and in 2015, it was valued at approximately $2 billion by investors. Last year, the company reported about $200 million in annual subscription revenue. A decade later, Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018 for $7.5 billion in stock.