AWS Trims “Hundreds” of Cloud Roles in Strategic Restructure

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has laid off at least several hundred employees, following an internal strategic review, Reuters reported. While the precise number remains undisclosed, the cuts impact multiple teams, including the customer-facing “specialists” group.

An Amazon spokesperson explained: “We’ve made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS,” adding the reductions are aimed at helping the company “continue to invest, hire, and optimize resources to deliver innovation for our customers.”

Affected employees reportedly received termination emails Thursday morning and had their access to company systems revoked. Despite the workforce reductions, AWS continues to report strong financial performance: Q1 revenue rose 17% year-over-year to $29.3 billion, with operating income up 23% to $11.5 billion.

Earlier this year, Amazon laid off about 100 employees in its devices and services unit, which includes teams behind the Kindle, Echo, Alexa, and Zoox robotaxi. The layoffs represent a small portion of the unit’s workforce.

The layoffs come amid a wider industry trend, with other tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and Intel downsizing as they shift toward AI-driven automation and cost optimisation.