Amazon has announced another round of targeted job cuts, this time affecting parts of its AGI organisation. The layoffs come as the tech giant reorganized its artificial intelligence strategy while spending billions in AI infrastructure, cloud computing, custom chips, and large language models.
Although Amazon confirmed the layoffs on July 22, the company did not disclose how many employees were impacted.
Amazon Refocuses Its AI Strategy
Indeed, the company says the decision is part of a wider strategy to streamline operations and prioritize AI initiatives that can deliver value to customers more quickly.
Amazon has for several years been developing advanced AI models, and it still considers artificial intelligence as one of its top strategic priorities, said an Amazon representative.
The rapidly evolving AI landscape requires the company to sharpen its focus, which means tough decisions; we have to cut some of the AGI roles out.
Employees React to Layoffs
Some employees who were impacted by the restructuring wrote on social media.
Among them was Miao Xiong, who was responsible for selecting training data for Amazon's AI models. In a post on X, he reflected on losing his position, writing that he was “the one that got filtered out” in deciding which data points should be used for AI pre-training.
He also spoke of the emotional impact of seeing the project meeting reminder in a project that no longer existed, showing just how dramatic the layoffs had been.
Leadership Changes in Amazon's AI Unit
The workforce reduction follows significant leadership transitions within Amazon's AGI division.
Reports indicate that:
- Rohit Prasad, who had been at the helm of Amazon's AGI efforts for several years, departed the company in 2025.
- David Luan, head of Amazon's AGI Lab, left the company in February 2026.
- In December, Amazon consolidated its AGI operations under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis, whose responsibilities include artificial intelligence, silicon development, and quantum computing.
The leadership changes are seen as a part of Amazon’s overall effort to reorganise its AI research and product development teams.
Part of Broader Workforce Reductions
The latest layoffs follow Amazon's broader restructuring of its labor force in January 2026 that saw the company reduce its global workforce by around 16,000 positions across different business units.
Amazon said employees affected in the United States by the latest round of job cuts will receive:
- 90 days of salary and benefits.
- Severance packages, where eligible.
- Continued healthcare support.
- Career transition and job placement assistance.
- AI Investment Continues
Amazon continues to invest heavily in artificial intelligence, and even though they have been cutting headcount in some divisions, it is not done well.
The firm is also expanding its spending on:
- Large language models.
- Cloud-based AI services.
- Data centres.
- AI chips and semiconductor development.
- Generative AI applications for customers and businesses.
Industry analysts say many tech firms continue to invest in AI and reduce their teams’ productivity and speed up product development as they try to optimize their processes and productivity.
Amazon’s move is part of a broad trend of large-scale AI expansion in the global tech sector, with companies attempting to balance aggressive AI expansion and organisational restructuring to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence market.
