Zoho Halts 2026 Salary Increases as AI Infrastructure Costs Surge Across Tech Industry

Zoho, an Indian software company with more than 10,000 employees, announced it will not provide annual salary increases to its workforce in 2026, citing a dramatic surge in artificial intelligence infrastructure costs as the primary driver. Co-founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu said the company had "cut down on our marketing budget" and "told our employees that we cannot have our usual pay increase this year," while pledging to "work hard to avoid mass layoffs."