Amazon to cut 16,000 jobs worldwide
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Online retail and cloud computing giant Amazon did not give any breakdown of its planned 16,000 global job cuts on Jan 28.
PHOTO: AFP
- Amazon will cut 16,000 jobs worldwide, following earlier plans to cut 14,000, as part of a restructuring to focus on AI.
- The cuts aim to streamline operations by "reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy," according to Beth Galetti.
- Amazon is investing heavily in AI, particularly through Amazon Web Services (AWS), joining other tech firms in reducing management roles.
AI generated
NEW YORK - US online retail and cloud computing giant Amazon said on Jan 28 that it would be cutting 16,000 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring, as it focuses spending on artificial intelligence.
The job cuts, which follow already flagged plans to cut its workforce by 14,000 posts, are aimed at “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” said senior vice-president Beth Galetti in a statement.
Media reports from October had said the roughly 30,000 job cuts planned in total would impact nearly 10 per cent of the 350,000 office jobs at Amazon, without affecting the distribution and warehouse workers that make up the bulk of its 1.5 million employees.
At the time, the company refused to comment on the reports, which said they came amid increased investments in artificial intelligence.
Amazon did not give any breakdown of the latest job cuts on Jan 28, saying only that “every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate.”
The company will release its full-year 2025 results on Feb 5. In its last quarterly earnings statement in October, the company said it spent US$1.8 billion (S$2.2 billion) on severance costs tied to planned job cuts.
Amazon said that new positions will be offered to employees where possible, without giving further details on which divisions will be affected by the cuts.
The layoffs are in line with a trend to trim white-collar management jobs across big tech.
Microsoft in July said it had slashed a little less than 4 per cent of its global workforce, about 15,000 jobs.
Facebook owner Meta has also cut jobs over the past year, in a move intended to remove organisational bloat following aggressive hiring during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dutch tech giant ASML on Jan 28 said it would cut cut hundreds of management jobs to improve internal organisation, with HP and Oracle also announcing recent layoffs.
Like other tech giants, Amazon is making massive investments to grab a slice of the AI revolution pie.
It is particularly banking on the performance of its subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s leading cloud provider, which is engaged in a race against its fast-growing rivals, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
And spending on developing new AI-based chips and services is growing exponentially. In December, Amazon announced that it would invest more than US$35 billion in India. AFP
