Amazon layoffs deepen as internal messages reveal which teams were cut

Amazon

• Amazon is cutting around 16,000 corporate roles across retail and AWS divisions
• Layoffs affect key teams like Prime, Delivery Experience, Bedrock, and Redshift
• US, UK, India staff receive 90 days pay, benefits, and severance packages.

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Amazon has begun notifying around 16,000 corporate employees that their roles have been eliminated, but the initial company-wide message offered few specifics. An email from HR chief Beth Galetti spoke broadly about “reducing layers and removing bureaucracy”, without naming the teams affected. Now, internal messages and executive communications obtained by Business Insider reveal where the cuts have landed and how widely they stretch across the company.

According to the report, the layoffs span both Amazon’s core retail business and its cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services. Internal Slack posts show affected employees actively seeking referrals and job leads, with many identifying as software engineers. The disclosures paint a picture of cuts that go well beyond peripheral teams, touching areas that are central to Amazon’s long-term strategy.

Within Amazon Web Services, roles tied to Bedrock, the company’s AI-focused cloud service, have been affected. Teams working on Redshift, Amazon’s data warehouse platform, have also seen job losses, alongside staff in ProServe, the consulting division that supports enterprise customers. These cuts suggest that even growth-oriented and customer-facing parts of AWS are not immune, despite the division remaining a major profit engine for the company.

Retail operations have also been hit. Business Insider reports that teams linked to the Prime subscription service and the last-mile Delivery Experience organisation are among those impacted. These groups play a key role in customer retention and fulfilment, areas that Amazon has historically prioritised even during periods of cost cutting.

The layoffs are affecting employees across multiple geographies, including the US, the UK, and India. Notifications were sent out on Wednesday morning, and affected workers were informed that their badge access had been restricted immediately. In some cases, employees who were already in Amazon offices reportedly needed security assistance to leave the building, underscoring how abruptly the process unfolded.

For US-based employees, Amazon is offering a 90-day period during which full pay and benefits will continue. During this time, workers can apply for internal roles elsewhere in the company. Those who do not secure a new position, or choose not to pursue one, will receive severance packages, outplacement support, and continued health insurance coverage.

An internal FAQ shared with employees provides further detail on the offboarding process. Affected staff are required to return company laptops using shipping boxes that will be sent after their separation date. They also have until February 13 to complete a survey indicating whether they plan to retrieve personal belongings from their desks. Items that are not claimed by the deadline may be donated or disposed of.

Executive messaging around the layoffs frames them as part of a broader cultural reset. In an internal memo, AWS vice president Prasad Kalyanaraman said the changes were intended to help Amazon operate like the “world’s largest startup”, a phrase frequently used by CEO Andy Jassy to describe his vision for the company. Kalyanaraman wrote that this approach requires a renewed focus on ownership, speed, and experimentation, and ongoing changes to how teams are structured.

This round of cuts follows another significant layoff in October, when Amazon eliminated roughly 14,000 roles. While the company employs more than 1.5 million people globally, its corporate workforce numbers around 350,000. The repeated reductions suggest that Amazon’s cost-cutting phase is far from over, even as it continues to invest heavily in AI, logistics, and cloud infrastructure.

Taken together, the internal disclosures offer a clearer picture than the official announcement did. The layoffs are not limited to fringe projects or redundant layers, but reach into some of Amazon’s most important businesses. For employees and observers alike, the message is clear: no part of the organisation is entirely safe from restructuring.