Amazon has unveiled plans to eliminate approximately 16,000 corporate positions, marking the technology behemoth’s second significant workforce reduction within a four-month period. The announcement signals a strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence and operational efficiency as the company restructures its organizational framework.
In an internal communication disseminated to employees on Wednesday, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, characterized the cuts as part of a comprehensive initiative to ‘strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy.’ The executive sought to reassure staff that these reductions do not represent an emerging pattern of regular workforce trimming, explicitly stating that recurring broad-scale layoffs are not part of the company’s strategic blueprint.
This latest workforce adjustment follows the termination of 14,000 corporate roles in October 2025, bringing the total number of positions eliminated since late last year to approximately 30,000. This figure represents roughly 10% of Amazon’s corporate and technology workforce, underscoring the substantial scale of the company’s organizational transformation.
The restructuring aligns with Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy’s vision for a leaner corporate architecture following extensive hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jassy has established internal objectives to streamline management hierarchies and cultivate a more agile, startup-like operational culture to foster accelerated innovation.
Concurrently, Amazon is aggressively reallocating resources toward artificial intelligence development and data center infrastructure expansion. The company projected in October that its capital expenditures would reach $125 billion in 2026, representing the most substantial spending forecast among leading technology corporations.
Jassy previously indicated in June that technological evolution would inevitably reshape workforce requirements, noting that while certain roles would diminish in necessity, emerging positions would be created to support the company’s evolving strategic priorities, particularly those related to AI implementation and operational optimization.