Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks at a launch event in New York on February 26, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Amazon The company confirmed Wednesday that it will lay off some employees in a division focused on artificial general intelligence as it continues to cut jobs while pouring money into AI.
The company did not say how many employees were affected or which parts of the AGI organization were affected by the layoffs. The AGI division focuses on building AI models and includes groups working on silicon development and quantum computing efforts.
“This is a fast-moving space, and we’re focused on the initiatives that matter most to our customers so we can move quickly on what matters,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “This focus has meant some difficult decisions, including eliminating some roles in the AGI organization, even as we continue to invest in the areas that matter most to our customers’ future.”
According to a LinkedIn post, employees who said they were laid off included AGI employees who were focused on model customization and post-training work.
Reuters first reported the layoffs.
Amazon has been downsizing in recent years as it has spent huge sums of money building out its AI infrastructure in the wake of the pandemic-induced hiring spree. The company has laid off more than 30,000 employees since October and has continued to reduce roles through smaller rounds in recent months.
Amazon is a leader in OpenAI, Anthropic, google. AGI generally refers to AI that can perform as well as or better than humans at most tasks.
In 2024, Amazon’s AGI Group released a series of foundational models called Nova. The division took on a broader focus last December when Amazon named longtime cloud chief Peter DeSantis to lead the group, replacing Rohit Prasad.
Amazon lost David Ruan, head of AGI Labs, in February. He joined the company in 2024 through the so-called acquisition of his startup Adept.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company has been building large-scale AI models for several years and “this remains one of the most important things we’re working on.”
In an interview with CNBC last month, DeSantis acknowledged that Amazon’s model is “not at the cutting edge for the very largest, most demanding workloads.”
He said Amazon is working to further enhance its models and hopes to have one of the “most capable intelligent models out there.”
Amazon is scheduled to announce its second quarter results next week. The company is forecasting capital spending of $200 billion this year, an increase of more than 50% from 2025, and is borrowing tens of billions of dollars to finance its AI buildout.
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