SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 28, 2026, 14:24 PST
- Amazon said it will cut about 16,000 corporate roles, taking reductions since October to roughly 30,000.
- An internal Amazon Web Services email referencing “Project Dawn” went out early and rattled staff.
- The move comes as Amazon leans harder on generative AI to streamline white-collar work.
Amazon said on Wednesday it will cut about 16,000 corporate jobs, extending a restructuring that has already thinned its office ranks since October.
The new reductions matter because they land in higher-paid corporate teams, where the company is betting software can do more of the work. Generative AI — a type of artificial intelligence that can produce text, images or code — has moved fast from pilots to daily tools across big companies.
On Tuesday, Amazon also said it would close its remaining Amazon Fresh grocery stores and Go convenience markets, and drop Amazon One, a palm-scanning payment system. Staff across businesses including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Alexa and Prime Video have reported being hit, and Amazon shares were down about 2% on Wednesday ahead of results due next week. 1
In a note to employees, Amazon human resources chief Beth Galetti said the cuts would “impact approximately 16,000 roles” and that most U.S.-based staff would get 90 days to seek another role internally. She said the company has been “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” and added: “That’s not our plan,” when addressing fears of broad layoffs every few months. 2
Some employees got an earlier, messier heads-up. A message signed by Colleen Aubrey, a senior vice president in AWS, appeared to tell staff in the United States, Canada and Costa Rica they had already been notified, before a team-wide meeting tied to the email was quickly cancelled. “Changes like this are hard on everyone,” Aubrey wrote, referring to the plan as “Project Dawn,” Reuters reported. 3
Amazon has not detailed which units will bear the brunt, but the cuts follow 14,000 jobs eliminated in October and take the total since then to about 30,000. The company employs about 1.58 million people worldwide, most in fulfilment centres and warehouses, meaning the reductions bite harder in the corporate workforce. Chief executive Andy Jassy has said he expects generative AI to shrink parts of that white-collar base over time and has framed the drive as stripping out layers and fixing culture. 4
In Australia, it was not immediately clear whether local staff would be affected, with one report saying the cuts were expected to fall mainly in the United States, Canada and Costa Rica. The same report noted Amazon is competing with rivals including Microsoft and Google as the AI race pushes companies to spend heavily on computing power while trying to stay lean. 5
Amazon is making the cuts despite recent strong financial performance, including a $21 billion profit in its most recent quarter, the Associated Press reported. The job reductions come as other big employers, including UPS and Pinterest, have also announced staffing cuts in recent days as companies reassess hiring and the impact of AI on office work. 6
But the picture remains muddy for employees. Amazon has not provided a breakdown by business unit or country, and Galetti left room for more “adjustments,” meaning teams could still face follow-on cuts even after this round lands.
For many workers, the next few months may come down to whether they can move inside the company before the clock runs out. Amazon has said it will keep hiring and investing in areas it deems strategic, even as it trims headcount elsewhere.
