Amazon Cuts Jobs In Cloud Services Arm Amid Spiraling AI Costs
Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said in June that he expected Amazon’s workforce to decline in the next few years as the company uses artificial intelligence to handle more tasks.
Amazon.com Inc. is cutting jobs in its cloud-computing division, the latest big tech company to pare its headcount amid rising costs for artificial intelligence.
The firings affected various teams at Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud computing service, company spokesperson Brad Glasser said Thursday.
“After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we’ve made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS” he said in an emailed statement. “We didn’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting the employees throughout their transition. These decisions are necessary as we continue to invest, hire, and optimize resources to deliver innovation for our customers.”
Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said in June that he expected Amazon’s workforce to decline in the next few years as the company uses artificial intelligence to handle more tasks.
Earlier this month, Microsoft Corp., which has also been spending lavishly on AI, began job cuts that will impact about 9,000 workers, its second major wave of layoffs this year.
Reuters, citing people familiar with the situation, earlier reported that the Amazon job cuts will affect hundreds of people. The company declined to say how many positions are being eliminated.
Amazon is the largest private employer in the US after Walmart Inc., with 1.56 million employees as of the end of March. Most of those people work in warehouses packing and shipping items, but more than 350,000 of them worked in corporate jobs.
