SoundHound, a voice AI company, laid off nearly half of its remaining staff last week—roughly 200 people—in a major company-wide downsizing, according to three employees who lost their jobs and an email from the CEO viewed by Gizmodo.“I was expecting a 17 year old company, which is now a public company, to at least provide bare minimum severance.”The severe cuts come just two months after another round of layoffs that saw 10% of the company’s workforce eliminated and others burdened with salary reductions.In his email to staff, SoundHound co-founder and CEO Keyvan Mohajer described a period of rapid growth in 2021 but said changing market conditions were forcing it to re-evaluate its financials and accelerate its path to profitability in 2023.Though many other of the estimated 107,000 tech workers who lost their jobs as part of the recent tech downturn were provided comfortable exit packages, the laid off SoundHound employees speaking with Gizmodo said that wasn’t true for them.“It’s really disappointing to see SoundHound’s once bright future ruined by executive decisions made in the wake of going public,” one of the laid off workers told Gizmodo."