Global tech giant Amazon has announced plans to lay off about 30,000 employees as part of a major restructuring aimed at cutting costs and boosting investment in artificial intelligence (AI), according to multiple reports.
The job cuts—expected to begin this week—represent nearly 10 percent of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate roles. However, the company clarified that the move will not affect warehouse or distribution staff, who make up the bulk of Amazon’s 1.5 million global workforce.
The layoffs are being driven by CEO Andy Jassy’s focus on improving efficiency and eliminating redundant layers in the corporate structure. Jassy has emphasized that AI will play a transformative role in reshaping customer experiences and internal operations.
“Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out,” he said during Amazon’s last quarterly earnings call.
The restructuring is seen as a strategy to reduce expenses while freeing up capital for long-term AI infrastructure investments. The company faces growing pressure from investors to demonstrate the profitability of its massive AI spending ahead of its next earnings report, scheduled for Thursday.
Analysts say attention will be on Amazon Web Services (AWS)—the company’s lucrative cloud computing division—which is expected to show both revenue growth and improved operating margins as Amazon doubles down on AI integration.
While Amazon declined to comment on the reported layoffs, its shares closed slightly higher on Monday, signaling investor approval of the cost-cutting direction.
The development comes just a week after a major AWS outage disrupted numerous global services, including Prime Video, Disney+, WhatsApp, Signal, and several financial institutions. The incident, traced to a Domain Name System (DNS) failure, underscored the heavy dependence of the global digital economy on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure.
Though the technical issue was resolved, the outage served as a stark reminder of the critical role AWS plays in global internet stability, even as Amazon pivots toward an AI-driven future.