Amazon on Wednesday cut jobs in its artificial general intelligence (AGI) unit, extending a string of workforce reductions across the company even as it prepares to spend about $200 billion on AI infrastructure this year.
The move shows that Amazon is tightening its AI priorities, shifting talent and resources toward the projects it believes will have the biggest impact as competition with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta intensifies.
The company confirmed it eliminated roles within parts of its AGI organization but declined to disclose how many employees were affected or which teams were hit. Reuters first reported the layoffs.
“We’ve been building large AI models for several years, and it remains one of the most important things we’re working on,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “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 organization.”
Artificial general intelligence refers to a still-theoretical form of AI that could match or surpass human capabilities across a broad range of tasks, learning and reasoning without requiring separate training for each one. Companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Amazon have invested billions of dollars in pursuit of that goal, though experts remain divided on when, or if, true AGI will become reality.
Amazon’s AGI organization sits at the center of the company’s AI ambitions. The group develops foundation models, including Amazon’s Nova family, and now oversees a broader portfolio that includes silicon development and quantum computing.
The organization has gone through major leadership changes over the past year. Rohit Prasad, who previously led Amazon’s AGI efforts, stepped down from the role late last year. Amazon then consolidated the organization under senior vice president Peter DeSantis, giving him responsibility for AGI alongside silicon engineering and quantum computing initiatives.
The group has seen other notable departures. David Luan, who joined Amazon after the company hired key talent from AI startup Adept in 2024, left in February after leading Amazon’s AGI Lab for about a year.
Posts on professional networking sites and employee forums on Wednesday suggested teams led by AGI executives Adeeb Shanaa, vice president of AGI Data Services, and Vishal Sharma, vice president of AGI Information, were among those affected. Amazon has not confirmed which groups were impacted, and the full scope of the layoffs remains unclear.
The cuts add to Amazon’s broader effort to reshape its workforce after years of aggressive hiring during the pandemic. The company announced roughly 16,000 layoffs in January and has continued trimming jobs across several business units as it redirects spending toward AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and data centers.
Amazon maintains that artificial intelligence remains one of its highest priorities.
The timing is notable. Amazon is set to report second-quarter earnings next week after forecasting about $200 billion in capital expenditures this year, more than 50% higher than in 2025. The company has raised tens of billions of dollars in debt to help finance new AI infrastructure, making artificial intelligence one of the biggest investment priorities in Amazon’s history.
As Amazon pours unprecedented amounts of capital into chips, data centers, and foundation models, Wednesday’s layoffs send a clear message. Winning the AI race is no longer just about spending more. It is about deciding where that spending can produce the greatest return.
