SUNNYVALE — Intuitive Surgical has decided to slash hundreds of South Bay jobs due to a reduction in shifts and hours for one of its advanced medical equipment units, according to an official state filing.
The maker of advanced robots for surgical procedures is cutting 331 jobs at 1050 Kifer Road in Sunnyvale, the tech giant reported in a WARN letter it sent to the state Employment Development Department.
Intuitive Surgical is conducting the job cuts even though the company has orchestrated numerous property purchases in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.
The company has spent at least $271 million buying sites in the two South Bay cities in recent years. The moves are poised to provide additional elbow room for future expansion.
Over the 12 months that ended in June 2025, Intuitive Surgical produced a profit of $2.61 billion on revenue of $9.15 billion, according to the Finance Charts website. For the calendar year 2024, the company earned $2.36 billion on revenue of $8.35 billion.
Sunnyvale-based Intuitive Surgical said the job cuts were scheduled to occur around Oct. 27 of this year, according to the WARN letter.
“Intuitive Surgical will cease operations for graveyard and weekend shifts for Ion Instruments & Accessories production, as well as related logistics and quality operations activities in Sunnyvale,” Peyton Grant-Tran, an Intuitive Surgical people services specialist, wrote in the WARN notice. “All roles supporting these shifts will be eliminated.”
The tech company is also taking steps to transition to a five-day workweek for its production teams, the company stated.
“We will transition our 4×10 day shift (four days a week, ten hours each day) to a 5×8 shift schedule (five days a week, eight hours each day) for all production teams in Sunnyvale,” Grant-Tran reported in the WARN notice. “Intuitive anticipates this will result in job eliminations.”
The company added that it didn’t have final figures for the number of layoffs at present.
It’s possible that the ultimate number of layoffs related to these actions might be less than the company’s current estimate.
“We encourage all affected employees to apply for open roles,” Gran-Tran said in the WARN filing. “The level of interest and interview process will inform the final layoff figure. It is our goal to retain as many employees as possible by continuing their employment with Intuitive.”