Amazon slashes robotics division in fresh round of job cuts
After 16,000 job cuts in January, Amazon announced on Tuesday it had laid off another round of staff – this time scaling back the company’s Amazon Robotics (AR) division.
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Amazon has cut another round of workers – this time inside the robotics division powering more than a million warehouse robots worldwide.
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The layoffs come just weeks after Amazon quietly scrapped a high-profile robotic arm project unveiled only months earlier.
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The cuts land as tech giants pour billions into AI and automation – while thousands of human jobs disappear.
Amazon addressed the job cuts in a statement released on Tuesday, although it did not confirm the exact number of people given the axe.
"We regularly review our organizations to make sure teams are best set up to innovate and deliver for our customers," the statement read.
At least 100 white-collar positions were eliminated across the robotics unit, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Massachusetts-based Amazon Robotics unit is responsible for designing, building, and controlling the roughly one million autonomous robots and intelligent warehouse systems that run Amazon’s more than 1,200 fulfillment centers worldwide.
Amazon trims robotics unit after January layoffs
The layoffs come just one month after Amazon CEO Andy Jassy signed pink slips for 16,000 employees on January 28th, part of the company’s October announcement to trim its workforce by 30,000.
In what turned out to be a publicity nightmare – and just hours before the official announcement was made – Amazon brass accidentally sent an “oops” email to thousands of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) workers, prematurely informing each one about their impending layoff.
Although Jassy and management claim the job cuts were aimed at “removing bureaucracy,” ironically, the company has been investing heavily in AI automation – or what it now calls “advanced technology” and “cobots.”
The new cuts also happen to come only weeks after Amazon officially shuttered its Blue Jay robotic arm project, which it had launched in a public demonstration barely three months earlier.
According to Reuters, the Blue Jay featured multiple robotic arms that could grab several items at once and was designed to help workers in smaller spaces.
Amazon had cited cost, technical complexities, and failure to scale as the primary reasons.
Tech layoffs continue across Silicon Valley
The layoffs represented nearly 10% of white-collar work staff, though the bulk of Amazon's 1.5 million workers are hourly staff, particularly in warehouses known as fulfillment centers.
On Tuesday, X user “Official Layoff Coin” posted that in January 2026, the US saw 108,435 job cuts, calling it “the worst month tally since 2009.”
- Amazon laid off 30,000 employees.
- Microsoft laid off 15,000.
- Block laid off 4,000+.
- Salesforce laid off ~1,000.
- eBay laid off 800.
Quoting a previous comment from OpenAI’s Sam Altman, the X user wrote, "People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model, but it also takes a lot of energy and resources to train a human."
“And signs an agreement with the Department of War. Truly interesting times for humanity," the post ended.
Amazon let go of about 27,000 jobs in 2022, making the total number of workers trimmed from then to now to nearly 50,000.
Amazon has also, in the past twelve months, pared down a smaller number of jobs in its devices and services, books, podcasts, and public relations units, among others, Reuters said.
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