Abstract:
SUSE, a German enterprise-level Linux distribution provider, plans to lay off about 10% of its employees worldwide, which is expected to involve about 190 people. The company's CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen said in an internal memo sent to all employees that artificial intelligence and automation technologies are fundamentally changing the way the software industry works, and the company's existing organizational structure and staffing are no longer able to adapt to future development requirements.
SUSE's layoffs involve employees around the world, rather than targeting a specific country or region. The company plans to notify affected employees starting on November 4, but it has not announced the specific departments, positions and office locations involved.
SUSE currently has about 1,900 employees. Based on a 10% reduction ratio, this adjustment may affect about 190 people.
In an internal memo, van Leeuwen said that artificial intelligence capabilities are developing at an exponential rate, forcing software companies to rethink workflows and organizational structures. He pointed out that modern tools have changed the way daily work is done within SUSE, allowing the team to complete more work with less operational overhead and a flatter management structure.
He believes that demand for some existing positions has dropped significantly, while other positions will change in the next few years. Therefore, companies need to accelerate investment in high-priority business areas while reducing resource investment in other areas.
van Leeuwen said in the memo that these decisions are very painful for employees, corporate culture, and the open source community, but the company believes that these are necessary measures to build a more sustainable and resilient SUSE.
It is worth noting that the layoffs were not without warning. As early as September 2026, SUSE had already proposed a voluntary resignation plan to some senior employees, hoping to reduce the size of its staff through voluntary resignation. However, this plan did not receive the number of participants that management expected, so the company turned to formal layoffs.
According to an internal memo obtained by British technology media The Register, SUSE will first send notices to affected employees, then nominate employee representatives on November 5, and arrange one-on-one communications starting from the next week. The company also plans to introduce its overall development strategy for fiscal year 2027 to other employees on November 16.
At present, SUSE has not yet determined which positions will be the focus of layoffs. Management said that before making the decision, the company had evaluated the future development space of different positions, including which employees can adapt to the new way of working, which work can be stopped, and which areas require additional investment.
The owner of SUSE is EQT, a Swedish private equity investment organization. EQT acquired SUSE from Micro Focus in 2018 for $2.5 billion, then pushed to list the company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2021, only to take it private again in 2023.
In March this year, there was news in the market that EQT was considering selling SUSE again, with the potential valuation reportedly reaching US$6 billion. While it's unclear whether there is a direct link between the layoffs and potential sales, the company's ongoing cost structure adjustments are clearly occurring in the context of owners reassessing asset values.
Another detail worthy of attention is that SUSE has not actually given up on its artificial intelligence business. On October 27, 2026, the company just announced the addition of a new intelligent agent (Agentic AI) function to Linux management tools, hoping to use artificial intelligence to further automate enterprise IT infrastructure management.
This has formed a representative industry phenomenon: a company with Linux, open source software and enterprise infrastructure services as its core business is developing and selling AI automation products on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is reducing the size of its employees on the grounds that AI and automation change work processes.
The situation at SUSE also reflects the structural changes taking place in the software industry. In the past, enterprise-level Linux distribution and infrastructure management businesses required a large number of engineers to participate in software maintenance, system testing, technical support and customer service. As automation tools and AI programming assistants gradually mature, some repetitive tasks may be compressed, and companies have begun to re-evaluate the necessity of original positions.
However, SUSE has not released specific productivity improvement data, nor has it quantified how many jobs artificial intelligence can replace. Therefore, attributing this layoff entirely to the AI technology itself is still mainly a strategic explanation given by management, rather than a result that has been proven through public data.
For the open source community, layoffs may have another impact. SUSE not only operates commercial Linux products, but also has long been involved in the construction of Linux ecosystem, open source projects and enterprise-level infrastructure. The departure of experienced engineers may affect the maintenance, technical support and community collaboration of some projects. There is still no clear answer as to whether the eliminated positions involve core developers.
From the perspective of the global software industry, SUSE's decision is of certain symbolic significance: the employment impact brought by artificial intelligence is no longer limited to traditional clerical jobs or Internet platforms, but has begun to directly affect software infrastructure companies that have long relied on professional engineers and technicians.
Comments