Amazon Lays Off Staff in Artificial General Intelligence Division
Source: Fintech News SG
Amazon has laid off staff in its artificial general intelligence division as part of a broader reorganisation that signals a shift in how the tech giant approaches long-term AI research. While the company did not disclose how many employees were affected, the cuts come amid a restructuring announced in...
Amazon has laid off staff in its artificial general intelligence division as part of a broader reorganisation that signals a shift in how the tech giant approaches long-term AI research. While the company did not disclose how many employees were affected, the cuts come amid a restructuring announced in December that placed AGI work under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis alongside chip development and quantum computing — tying foundational AI research more tightly to Amazon's hardware and infrastructure strategy.
The division has seen significant leadership turnover. Rohit Prasad, who oversaw Amazon's AGI operations, left at the end of 2025, and AGI Lab head David Luan departed in February 2026. Employees within teams led by AGI executives Adeeb Shanaa and Vishal Sharma posted online that they had been affected, according to Reuters. Amazon confirmed the layoffs but maintained that developing large AI models remains a priority, attributing the cuts to a sharper focus on initiatives considered most important to customers.
The restructuring comes as Amazon Web Services — the company's cloud arm that powers a significant portion of Singapore's enterprise AI infrastructure — continues to dominate the APAC cloud market. AWS has been investing heavily in Singapore, with multiple availability zones and a growing portfolio of AI services including Bedrock, SageMaker, and its own Trainium and Inferentia chips. The AGI reorganisation suggests Amazon is prioritising applied AI services over open-ended research — a trend that resonates across the industry as companies demand practical AI ROI.
This is not Amazon's first major workforce reduction tied to AI reorganisation. In January, the company announced plans to eliminate about 16,000 corporate roles as part of a wider restructuring that saw resources redirected toward AI and cloud priorities. The pattern across Big Tech — from Google's layoffs in its Assistant division to Microsoft's reorganisation of its AI research teams — points to a sector-wide shift: foundational research is being consolidated, while product-focused AI teams expand.
Why it matters for Singapore: As a regional hub for AWS operations and a key market for cloud-based AI services, Singapore's tech ecosystem is directly affected by Amazon's strategic direction. Enterprises here that rely on AWS Bedrock and SageMaker for their AI workloads may see a sharper product focus from Amazon's AI offerings. More broadly, the restructuring signals that even the deepest corporate pockets are scrutinising AI spend — a reminder for Singapore businesses building on Big Tech platforms that the era of unlimited AI research investment is giving way to a more disciplined, product-driven approach.
