Trending 
Amazon has announced plans to cut 16,000 jobs worldwide as part of a broader restructuring effort, as the US e-commerce and cloud computing giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence(AI).
Senior vice president Beth Galetti said the move is aimed at streamlining the company by reducing management layers, boosting accountability and cutting bureaucracy.
Amazon did not provide a breakdown of where the latest job losses will occur, saying only that teams would continue to assess their structure, pace and capacity to innovate, and make changes where necessary.
The company will publish its full-year 2025 financial results on February 5. In its most recent quarterly earnings report in October, Amazon disclosed that it had already spent $1.8 billion on severance costs related to the planned layoffs.
Amazon further stated that it would try to redeploy affected employees into new roles where possible, though it did not specify which divisions would be impacted.
Meanwhile, media reports in October suggested the planned reductions could affect nearly 10 percent of Amazon’s estimated 350,000 corporate employees, while leaving warehouse and delivery staff untouched. Those frontline workers make up the majority of Amazon’s global workforce of about 1.5 million.
At the time, the company declined to comment on the reports, which linked the cuts to rising investment in AI.
The cuts reflect a wider trend across the tech sector, where companies are trimming white-collar and management roles after heavy pandemic-era hiring.
Microsoft said in July it had reduced its global workforce by just under four percent, or about 15,000 jobs, while Meta has also carried out job cuts to streamline its organisation.
Elsewhere, Dutch chipmaker ASML announced plans on Wednesday to shed hundreds of management positions, with HP and Oracle also reporting recent layoffs.
Like its peers, Amazon is pouring billions into artificial intelligence, particularly through its cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, which is competing fiercely with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Spending on AI-driven chips and services continues to accelerate, and in December Amazon said it would invest more than $35 billion in India.
