Amazon lays off several hundred workers in cloud computing unit

Amazon said on Wednesday that it is laying off several hundred workers in its cloud computing unit, AWS.

AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms, cut a few hundred roles in its sales, marketing, global services division and physical stores technology team, according to Reuters.

An AWS spokesperson told Reuters that the cuts were implemented after it “identified a few targeted areas” that it needed to “streamline.” 

FOX Business reached out to Amazon for comment. 

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Amazon has continued to massively trim down its headcount since CEO Andy Jassy told employees that the company had to cut costs after the industry rapidly overhired during the pandemic. 

Over the past two years, the company cut thousands of jobs across several divisions, including its devices and books businesses; the Amazon Stores division, which encompasses its e-commerce business as well as the company’s brick-and-mortar stores; and its PXT organizations that handle human resources and other functions.

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In January, its media division took a hit. Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, informed staff in an internal memo that the organization would be “eliminating several hundred roles” as the company continued to identify opportunities to “reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas.”

Around the same time, Amazon’s Twitch service announced its own “difficult update,” sharing on its blog an email from CEO Dan Clancy to employees informing them that the company would slash its headcount by 35% to around 500 people.

Amazon employs a global workforce of 1.5 million people. 

In February, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the layoffs hitting the tech industry aren’t due to the growth of artificial intelligence. 

It started as the result of companies trying to navigate the e-commerce boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, they’re realizing they can be more efficient as a leaner organization, Zuckerberg said during a conversation on the Morning Brew Daily podcast. 

FOX Business’ Breck Dumas contributed to this report.