Open-source software company SUSE told its roughly 1,900 employees on Monday that it is eliminating approximately 10 per cent of its global workforce, with affected staff due to be notified by 4 November.
In an internal memo seen by The Register, CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen said the cuts were driven by structural change rather than short-term financial pressure. "Automation and AI are fundamentally shifting how software companies operate," he wrote, adding that "AI capabilities are advancing exponentially, forcing us to radically reimagine our work" and that the organisational design SUSE is built on today "will not carry us forward successfully."
Van Leeuwen told staff that modern tooling now lets teams work with less overhead and flatter reporting lines, reducing the need for some existing roles.
A voluntary separation programme in September 2026 drew too little uptake, pushing the EQT-owned Linux vendor to mandatory redundancies. Staff caught up in the cuts were to be informed by 4 November, with employee representatives nominated the following day and one-to-one meetings beginning the week after.
The remaining staff will receive an overview of SUSE's fiscal year 2027 strategy on 16 November.
EQT, SUSE's private equity owner, has reportedly been weighing a sale of the Nuremberg-based Linux company. Staff at SUSE's Prague office formed a union earlier this year.
The round of cuts is notable for its framing: rather than citing falling demand or cost pressures, the CEO named AI directly as the reason certain roles no longer exist ,making SUSE the latest tech company to tie job cuts explicitly to AI.
Source : The Register
