Amazon announces mass layoffs amid AI push
US retail and tech giant Amazon has announced thousands of job cuts, citing a need to restructure and a focus on AI.
The company will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, a 4% reduction in its office workforce, according to a statement published on Tuesday, adding that AI is “enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before.”
Staff in the US, Canada, and Europe have been informed of the layoffs, according to internal Slack posts viewed by Business Insider.
The layoffs are the company's biggest since 2023, when 27,000 jobs were cut globally.
Since 2024, the tech giant has committed about $40 billion to four data center projects in the US, as it builds up its infrastructure to try to compete with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and others.
Earlier this month, Senator Bernie Sanders, the ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, warned that technology is being leveraged primarily to increase corporate profits and concentrate wealth. He pointed to executives who have announced significant investments in automation concurrently with mass layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.
The layoffs at Amazon come amid a wider trend where corporate giants eliminate tens of thousands of positions as they intensify automation.
Data from tracker Layoffs.fyi indicates that nearly 113,000 tech employees were let go among 218 tech firms globally this year.
Two of America’s biggest tech firms announced job cuts this year as they reorganize around artificial intelligence. Microsoft plans to shed about 6,000 roles, or 3% of its staff, while Alphabet has trimmed hundreds across its Android, Pixel, and Chrome teams. Intel is reportedly preparing to cut more than a fifth of its workforce, and Apple laid off over 600 employees in California last year.
Apart from AI, factors like sluggish revenue growth and global economic instability are reportedly also driving the restructuring.
