The cuts, which have been rolled out over the past few weeks, seeks to streamline the company’s direct sales operations.

An Apple spokesperson told Reuters: “We are continuing to hire, and affected employees are encouraged to apply for new roles within the company.”

One of the most impacted groups was the government sales team, which supports agencies such as the U.S. Defence Department and Justice Department.

This team had already faced operational challenges following a 43-day government shutdown and subsequent budget restrictions from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Bloomberg reported.

Analysts say the layoffs are indicative of Apple’s pivot. Rather than relying solely on internal sales teams, Apple is changing enterprise and institutional sales to third-party resellers. This allows the company to reduce overhead while maintaining its reach into lucrative government and education sectors.

The development also aligns with the current situation in the technology sector. Companies including Verizon, Synopsys, and IBM have recently announced job cuts, even with profitable quarters, as firms restructure and simplify specialised sales and operational roles.

Analysts note that Apple is following this playbook to strengthen its customer engagement while trimming redundancies.

The decision surprised some employees, recalling Apple’s historical avoidance of mass layoffs. Nevertheless, the company framed the restructuring as a way to “connect with even more customers”, emphasising that internal opportunities remain for those affected.

The company confirmed this on Tuesday, saying the layoffs are part of a restructuring aimed at simplifying operations and enhancing focus on its long-term priorities.

Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of People Experience and Technology, said in a company blog post, “The reductions we’re sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers’ current and future needs.”

The cuts will affect various divisions across Amazon’s corporate structure, including its human resources unit, known internally as People Experience and Technology (PXT), as well as operations, devices, services, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

According to people familiar with the matter, some managers were briefed on Monday and trained on how to handle employee notifications, which began rolling out Tuesday morning.

This new round of layoffs follows a series of job reductions that began in late 2022, when the company eliminated about 27,000 corporate positions due to slowing growth after the pandemic boom. 

At the time, CEO Andy Jassy described the move as necessary to “right-size” the company following years of rapid expansion.

In recent months, Jassy has doubled down on efforts to reduce what he calls “excess bureaucracy.” He previously launched an internal anonymous feedback line that led to over 450 process changes, all aimed at improving efficiency. 

The CEO also hinted in June that advances in automation and artificial intelligence could reduce the need for certain corporate functions, noting that Amazon was “still larger than it needs to be” following its pandemic-era hiring spree.

The company’s focus on automation and AI-driven productivity has already begun to change its workforce. Sky Canaves, an eMarketer analyst, said, “This latest move signals that Amazon is likely realising enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force.”

While the 14,000 layoffs represent less than 5% of Amazon’s 350,000-strong corporate workforce, internal projections seen by Reuters suggest the number could eventually climb to as high as 30,000, depending on business priorities and financial outcomes in the coming quarters.

Amazon currently employs about 1.55 million people worldwide, including warehouse and logistics workers. Despite these corporate reductions, the company still plans to hire about 250,000 seasonal workers ahead of the holiday shopping season, maintaining the same hiring scale as the past two years.

The announcement comes just days before Amazon’s third-quarter earnings report, scheduled for Thursday.

Analysts expect modest growth in AWS, the company’s most profitable arm, after it reported a 17.5% year-over-year increase last quarter, lagging behind competitors Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

These layoffs are part of its calculated business enhancement, as the company, still profitable and growing, is trading people for processors.

This latest round of cuts, confirmed as the company opened its 2026 fiscal year, comes after months of internal trimming. Over 6,000 roles were removed in May, another 300 in June, and performance-related reductions took place earlier in the year. As of June 2024, Microsoft employed around 228,000 people globally.

The driving force behind these decisions is not falling revenue or poor earnings. In fact, Microsoft posted a massive $25.8 billion in net income for the March quarter, an 18% year-on-year increase, on revenue of $70 billion. It’s the company’s evolving priorities that have prompted the shift.

In a memo to staff, Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote: “To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.”

The layoffs span multiple teams and regions, including 200 roles at King, the Barcelona-based Candy Crush developer, as well as staff at Bethesda and ZeniMax. 

Cuts are also expected across sales, engineering, and operations, with focus now placed on leaner structures, faster decisions, and tighter alignment with the company’s long-term tech strategy.

Internally, Microsoft has rolled out formalised performance improvement plans and a strict two-year rehire ban for employees let go for underperformance.

There’s also a new focus on tracking what insiders call “good attrition”, voluntary or involuntary exits viewed as positive for the company’s talent pool. This shows similar systems at Meta and Amazon.

Why all this now? Microsoft is spending big; its $80 billion capital investment plan for fiscal 2025 is the largest in its history. Over half of that budget is being funnelled directly into AI infrastructure: from custom Maia chips to tens of thousands of Nvidia H100 GPUs, to even building a nuclear-powered data centre in Finland. 

The goal is to support real-time inference for tools like Microsoft Copilot, which demand immense computing power.

An insider familiar with the cost model said this is a “straight swap: fewer salaries, more silicon.” Internal estimates suggest the job cuts will save around $1.7 billion annually, money that will be redirected to these AI-heavy investments.

Microsoft’s strategy is not unfolding in isolation. The tech industry has entered a phase of cost consolidation.

Big Tech has eliminated over 75,000 jobs in just the first half of 2025. Meta trimmed 5% of its lowest-rated performers, Alphabet has laid off hundreds, and Amazon has reduced headcount in books, devices, HR, and other units.

Microsoft’s share price hit a record high of $497.45 on 26 June 2025, just days before this announcement.

Even with the layoffs, investor confidence remains intact, fuelled by expectations that Azure, Microsoft’s cloud business, and enterprise software subscriptions will deliver 14% year-on-year revenue growth in the June quarter.

So, this is what recalibration looks like in the age of machine-driven infrastructure: fewer managers, more chips, and a relentless focus on speed and scalability.