Amazon cuts AGI roles while keeping AI spending plans intact

Amazon has cut an undisclosed number of jobs in parts of its Artificial General Intelligence organization, The Register reported, even as the company continues to present AI as one of its highest-priority investment areas. The company did not say how many roles were eliminated or identify the specific teams affected, leaving the scope of the AGI cuts unclear.

The layoffs sit inside a much wider reduction at Amazon. According to The Register, Amazon has shed more than 30,000 employees since October, including 16,000 cuts announced in January. At the same time, the company is investing heavily in AI infrastructure, custom chips and foundation models, with projected capital expenditure of $200 billion for 2026.

An Amazon spokesperson told The Register that the company has worked on large AI models for several years and still sees that work as one of its most important priorities. The spokesperson said Amazon is narrowing its focus to the AI initiatives it believes matter most to customers and that the shift includes eliminating some roles in parts of the AGI organization. Amazon said it would support affected employees, but did not disclose severance terms or other transition details.

Teams affected have not been fully identified

Amazon has not provided a team-by-team account of the cuts. The Register said employees posting publicly reported layoffs in groups working on model customization and post-training, with some employees describing reductions of about 10 percent. Those employee accounts were not accompanied by a company-confirmed headcount.

Reuters separately reported that the layoffs reached teams overseen by Adeeb Shanaa, vice president of AGI Data Services, and Vishal Sharma, vice president of AGI Information. Amazon has not publicly detailed how those groups fit into its revised AGI priorities.

The cuts follow a leadership change in Amazon’s AI organization less than a year ago. Longtime Amazon executive Peter DeSantis took over the AGI organization as the company sought to speed work on its Nova foundation models and its broader generative AI strategy, according to The Register.

AI hiring is not insulated from cost cuts

The move underlines a pattern now familiar across large technology companies: AI budgets can grow while AI-adjacent teams still get cut. For Amazon, the distinction appears to be between areas it wants to fund aggressively, such as infrastructure and model development, and specific teams or functions it no longer sees as central to the next phase of its AI roadmap.

Amazon’s public position is that the layoffs are part of a focus exercise, rather than a retreat from AI. That framing leaves important details unanswered for employees, investors and customers watching the company’s generative AI push. Amazon has not said whether the AGI cuts will affect the pace of Nova development, internal model tooling, customer-facing AI products or its competitive position against other foundation model providers.

For the broader market, the signal is narrow but useful. Even inside one of the most capital-intensive AI programs in technology, headcount is being treated as adjustable. Amazon is still spending on AI, but the company is not treating every AI role as protected from restructuring.

This story draws on original reporting from The Register.