Amazon to Cut Around 14,000 Corporate Jobs Globally as Part of Major Restructuring

Seattle-based Amazon announced that it will eliminate approximately 14,000 corporate roles worldwide, as the company embarks on a major restructuring to streamline its operations and reduce management layers.
In a memo shared with employees, Senior Vice President of People Experience & Technology Beth Galetti wrote that while some hiring will continue in strategic areas, the changes reflect a push to become “leaner, flatter, faster” by investing resources in its highest-priority bets.
Despite past reports suggesting cuts might reach as many as 30,000 corporate roles, Amazon’s public statement affirmed the figure of around 14,000.
What Amazon says is driving the changeAccording to a statement from CEO Andy Jassy, the motivation is not predominantly cost-cutting, nor is it the immediate impact of artificial intelligence replacing roles — rather, the focus is on resetting a culture that had grown large and unwieldy after rapid expansion. “The announcement … was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven, not right now, at least,” Jassy said. “Really, it’s culture.”
In her memo, Galetti noted that Amazon believes this generation of AI is “the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet,” yet insisted that the restructuring is about ensuring the organisation is set up to move swiftly and deliver value over the long term.
India-specific and regional contextWhile Amazon has not publicly detailed country-by-country layoff counts, media reports indicate that in India, between 800 and 1,000 roles may be affected across finance, human resources and technology functions. These roles are said to be primarily within teams reporting to Amazon’s global operations.
Additionally, regulatory filings in California show more than 1,400 jobs will be cut in that state alone — including over 800 in the Bay Area — underscoring the global scale of the restructuring.
Employee impact & what’s nextAmazon says impacted employees in many regions will be offered a transition period (e.g., 90 days) to seek other roles internally, and will receive severance pay, health-insurance support and out-placement services where applicable.
For employees remaining, the message is clear: the company expects them to focus on customer-facing work, embrace AI and automation tools, and proactively eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy. As one internal memo put it, “work that most directly impacts our customers” must be the priority.
Broader implicationsThe cuts come at a time when major employers and tech companies are shifting away from pandemic-era hiring surges and are beginning to calibrate head-count amid economic uncertainty, rising AI adoption and the need for greater operational efficiency.
ConclusionWith this overhaul, Amazon is signalling a strategic pivot: rather than expanding nearly everything simultaneously, the emphasis now is on focusing, simplifying and enabling faster innovation. Whether the move translates into stronger performance in the coming quarters remains to be seen — but it marks one of the largest corporate restructuring efforts by the company in recent years.
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