Amazon confirmed on Tuesday that it has carried out a fresh round of layoffs within its robotics division, eliminating at least 100 white-collar positions in the company’s latest workforce reduction. The announcement comes just weeks after Amazon quietly shut down a high-profile robotic arm project and only months after it completed the largest series of job cuts in the company’s history.
Business Insider first reported the Amazon robotics layoffs. Amazon confirmed the cuts in an official statement but did not disclose the exact number of employees affected. According to two people familiar with the situation who spoke to Reuters, at least 100 white-collar roles were eliminated from the division.
Inside Amazon’s Robotics Division
The Massachusetts-based Amazon Robotics unit is central to the company’s massive warehouse network. It designs, builds, and oversees roughly one million autonomous robots and intelligent systems that power more than 1,200 Amazon fulfillment centers worldwide. The company reached the milestone of deploying its one millionth robot last year. Even as it reduces the human workforce behind those machines, Amazon’s fulfillment operations continue to rely on robotics to move and sort millions of packages every day.
Amazon’s Official Statement
Amazon addressed the cuts in a statement released on Tuesday: “We regularly review our organizations to make sure teams are best set up to innovate and deliver for our customers. Following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a relatively small number of robotics roles. We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting employees whose roles are affected with severance pay, health insurance benefits, and job placement support.”
The company described the positions eliminated as a “relatively small number,” though it declined to provide a specific figure.
Blue Jay Robotic Arm Project Shut Down
The latest job cuts closely follow another retreat from Amazon’s automation ambitions. Just weeks before Tuesday’s announcement, the company halted development of its Blue Jay robotic arm system — a project it had publicly unveiled at a demonstration event only a few months earlier, in October. The Blue Jay was engineered with multiple robotic arms designed to grab several items simultaneously, making it well-suited for workers operating in tighter warehouse spaces. Amazon attributed the shutdown to cost challenges, technical complexities, and a failure to scale the technology to a workable level.
Part of Amazon’s Largest-Ever Workforce Reduction
These robotics division layoffs are separate from, but closely connected to, Amazon’s broader effort to trim its corporate workforce. Starting in October, the company began eliminating around 14,000 white-collar employees, citing efficiency gains driven by artificial intelligence and a push to revise company culture. A second wave of roughly 16,000 more jobs followed in January, bringing the total to 30,000 — the largest workforce reduction in Amazon’s history. Together, those cuts represent nearly 10% of the company’s white-collar staff. Amazon’s overall workforce stands at approximately 1.58 million when including hourly fulfillment center employees.
Over the past year, Amazon has also quietly trimmed a smaller number of roles across its devices and services, books, podcasts, and public relations teams.
“That’s Not Our Plan” — But Cuts Continue
After the January layoffs, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, sent a memo to employees addressing their concerns. She acknowledged that workers might wonder “if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months,” and stated plainly, “That’s not our plan.” However, she also noted that teams would continue evaluating their operations and making changes as needed — a caveat that proved accurate with Tuesday’s announcement.
Amazon has now eliminated close to 57,000 positions since cutting around 27,000 jobs back in 2023.
Tech Sector Layoffs Keep Piling Up
Amazon is far from alone in cutting jobs. January 2026 saw more than 108,000 job cuts at U.S. companies — a figure some observers described as the worst monthly total since 2009. Microsoft eliminated approximately 15,000 positions, while Block, Salesforce, and eBay also announced significant cuts during the same period.
In January, Amazon also revealed plans to close all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery store locations. Its “Just Walk Out” checkout technology — which uses overhead cameras and sensors to bypass traditional checkout lines — will live on as a separate licensing business, the company said.
