Amazon has laid off employees within its artificial general intelligence (AGI) division as the tech giant restructures its AI business to focus on its highest-priority projects.
The job cuts, disclosed on Wednesday, affect parts of Amazon’s AGI organization, although the company has not revealed how many employees were impacted.
Confirming the move, an Amazon spokesperson said the company remains committed to developing advanced AI technologies but is reallocating resources to speed up work on projects with the greatest customer impact.
“We’ve been building large AI models for several years, and it remains one of the most important things we’re working on.
“We’re sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter most for customers, so we can move faster on what counts. That focus means some difficult decisions, including eliminating some roles within parts of our AGI organisation.”
The latest layoffs follow Amazon’s broader restructuring efforts. In January, the company cut around 16,000 jobs across multiple business units as part of a cost-saving and operational realignment strategy.
The AGI division has also experienced leadership changes in recent months. Senior AI executive Rohit Prasad left the company late last year, while David Luan, who headed Amazon’s AGI Lab, departed in February. In December, Amazon reorganized its AI operations under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis, bringing AGI, semiconductor development and quantum computing under a single technology group.
Employees working under AGI executives Adeeb Shanaa and Vishal Sharma later indicated on online forums that their teams were among those affected by the layoffs.
The move reflects a broader trend across the technology industry, where companies are cutting jobs in some areas while increasing investment in artificial intelligence.
In recent months, Oracle reduced its global workforce by about 21,000 employees as it shifted resources toward AI. At the same time, Meta announced plans to eliminate roughly 8,000 jobs to fund expanded AI infrastructure, research and product development.
As competition in artificial intelligence intensifies, major technology companies are increasingly reshaping their workforces to prioritize AI initiatives, even as they continue reducing costs in other parts of their businesses.
