Amazon is cutting jobs in its cloud computing unit AWS

npr.org

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Re-posting, because I'm surprised that this news did not have enough traction here on HN.

I'm mildly surprised (but cynically, not altogether shocked) that Amazon is also doubling down on its real estate in Seattle, where they are simultaneously laying off AWS people.

It’s a few hundred jobs, and if Blind is to be believed, 90 days of pay and the vesting continues during notice period. Supposedly the mechanics are to avoid WARN notices. US economy experiences ~1.5M layoffs a month for comparison.

Amazon is a modern day body shop, and with the folks at the top, they’ll double down on real estate with the hybrid mandate. Churn and burn the talent.

(My hot take is that AWS uptake is slowing due to cost/spend controls implemented by customers due to rising interest rates and cost of money; Azure YoY growth has accelerated over the last 12 months or so vs AWS, and their OpenAI partnership gives MS an advantage while AWS plays catchup: https://www.srgresearch.com/articles/cloud-market-gets-its-m...)

So don't be fooled. The cloud computing business model is a lot like a gym. I.e. they already have the capacity in place, so they need warm bodies. A lot of those cloud ramp up, is in the form of rebates or giving money to customers to move between clouds.

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