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The e-commerce giant has been cutting costs while pouring resources into building data centers to compete in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.
Jan. 28, 2026Updated 6:19 a.m. ET
Though business has been booming, Amazon said on Wednesday that it was laying off 16,000 more corporate employees as it looked to trim bureaucracy and free up money for plans to spend heavily on artificial intelligence.
The cuts were widely expected across Amazon’s corporate work force since late October, when the company laid off 14,000 corporate employees. At the time, The New York Times and other publications reported that another round of layoffs was planned for January, after the holiday shopping season.
The company did not rule out more job cuts in the future, although it said it was not planning to create a “new rhythm” of layoffs every few months.
“Just as we always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate,” Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said in a blog post. “That’s never been more important than it is today in a world that’s changing faster than ever.”
Next week, Amazon is scheduled to report its financial results for the fourth quarter, which covered the holiday shopping season. Wall Street analysts expect that sales surpassed $211 billion and that profits were more than $21 billion.
In the previous quarter, July through September, the company’s sales totaled $180 billion, and profit topped $21 billion.
