Amazon has outlined plans to cut a further 16,000 jobs across its corporate workforce, as the tech group steps up efforts to reduce costs amid increased spending on AI.
In a message to staff on Wednesday, senior executive Beth Galetti said the company was making “organisation changes”, including “reducing layers … and removing bureaucracy”. (View Highlight)
The latest cuts will bring the total number of lay-offs at Amazon’s corporate workforce to 30,000, after it announced plans in October to axe 14,000 jobs. Amazon does not disclose a figure for its corporate headcount, but it is estimated to be around 350,000 staff, most of whom work in the US. (View Highlight)
The move comes as chief executive Andy Jassy has sought to cut costs after Amazon expanded aggressively during the pandemic to service a boom in demand for online services. Last year, Jassy also warned that advances in AI would “reduce” the company’s corporate headcount over the next few years. (View Highlight)
The Seattle-based conglomerate is racing against rivals Google and Microsoft to take a lead in the AI boom and power its fast-growing profit engine, Amazon Web Services. It committed to invest about $118bn in 2025, with the bulk directed towards AI infrastructure. (View Highlight)
Last month, Amazon announced a management shake-up, including the departure of its AI chief, as it prioritises catching up to rivals on their advanced chips and large language models. (View Highlight)
It is also in talks to invest more than $10bn in OpenAI and sell it more chips and computing power. Amazon released its most recent line of chips late last year, heralding its data-processing capabilities relative to leading chipmaker Nvidia’s Blackwell series of high-performance chips. (View Highlight)
