Amazon alone is responsible for 52% of tech layoffs in 2026 so far

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The ecommerce giant continues to shed management layers amid massive AI capital investments.

Amazon has been responsible for over half of the roughly 30,000 tech layoffs so far in 2026, according to new research by RationalFX. The foreign exchange comparison site analyzed tech company layoffs from the IT job portal TrueUp.io, as well as reports from TechCrunch, and popular layoff tracking site Layoffs.fyi.

The research showed that Amazon’s late January 2026 decision to lay off 16,000 employees has driven global tech layoffs past the 30,000 mark in under two months.

That number far outstrips the next biggest contributor, which was German-Austrian lighting and semiconductor group ams Osram, which recently announced plans to cut around 2,000 roles globally.

The great flattening 

Amazon said the changes were designed to “strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy”, according to a memo to staff from Beth Galetti, the senior vice-president of people experience and technology.

The announcement itself came within hours of a meeting invite sent on 27 January 2026, and later withdrawn, that accidentally included a draft email outlining the layoffs. The message, seen by the BBC, was intended for a small group of executives.

Back in October 2025, Amazon cut 14,000 corporate roles, spanning human resources, operations, administrative functions and parts of Amazon Web Services.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently committed to $200 billion in capital expenditure, “predominantly in AWS because we have very high demand, customers really want AWS for core and AI workloads, and we’re monetizing capacity as fast as we can install it.” The company also reported an operating income of $80 billion in 2025, up 17% from 2024.

“Large-scale layoffs, once considered a red flag by investors, have become a standard tool for operational refinement among leading tech firms,” said Alan Chohen, an analyst at RationalFX. “Amazon’s massive layoff waves clearly illustrate this shift: even as the company posts record revenues and pours billions into AI infrastructure, it is flattening management layers and eliminating entire job functions.”

LeadDev has contacted Amazon for a comment. 

More to come?

Galetti explained back in October that Amazon would continue to trim staff because “AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before.”

Subsequently, more than 1,000 Amazon employees signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” about AI development at the company. “Amazon is forcing us to use AI while investing in a future where it’s easier to discard us,” the letter stated.

The letter demanded the creation of ethical AI working groups, made up of non-managers from across the company, that would have influence over how AI-related layoffs or headcount freezes are implemented.

Jassy predicted in June 2025 that efficiency gains from AI would shrink Amazon’s corporate staff in the coming years. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in a memo to employees. “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.”

London • June 2 & 3, 2026

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