Amazon Mistakenly Sends Premature Layoff Emails To AWS Employees In US, Canada, Costa Rica

On Tuesday, many employees at the Amazon Web Services cloud computing division received unexpected emails informing them of layoffs, sparking a shockingly strong reaction as there was no formal layoff communication announced. However, it turns out the tech giant has mistakenly sent out the notice before the planned layoff communication scheduled for Wednesday morning, according to multiple media reports.

Signed by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions at AWS, the notice was sent to employees in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica, alerting them of layoffs, under the internal name "Project Dawn," and included a team-wide meeting invitation tied to the workforce reduction event.
"Changes like this are hard on everyone," Aubrey wrote in the email, reviewed by Reuters. "These decisions are difficult and are made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success."

After realising the slip-up, the tech giant immediately cancelled the meeting. As of now, Amazon has not publicly confirmed the layoff details or the misfired email, and impacted employees have not received official notifications through Amazon's standard internal communication channels.

The email also included a message from Amazon's HR boss Beth Galetti, saying that the company had already notified "impacted colleagues in our organization," in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica that their roles have been eliminated.

The prematurely sent email comes as Reuters reported last week about the Seattle-based company's plan to cut around 30,000 jobs next week, making it potentially the company's largest layoffs. The job cuts are expected to impact teams across Amazon Web Services (AWS), retail, Prime Video, and human resources, though the final details have not been confirmed yet.

Meanwhile, several media reports suggest that the upcoming layoffs could significantly impact corporate teams in India, particularly tech and support functions based in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. While earlier layoff rounds had a limited effect on Indian roles, this phase is expected to have a wider geographic reach.

The report noted that the Seattle-based company conducted the largest rounds of layoffs in 2022 with about 27,000 job losses. Meanwhile, Amazon cut around 14,000 office jobs in 2025, linking the workforce reduction to the increased usage of artificial intelligence (AI). The company argued that AI is helping companies work faster and more efficiently. However, CEO Andy Jassy later clarified that the cuts were about reducing bureaucracy and improving company culture.

As the layoffs approach, affected employees are seeking clarity on severance packages, healthcare benefits, and career transition support. These concerns have drawn heightened attention as the broader tech industry continues to struggle with restructuring and cost-cutting pressures.

Not just Amazon, corporate giants like Citigroup Inc., Société Générale Société anonyme (SocGen), FedEx, Ericsson, UPS, and Pinterest have announced major plans to slash their workforces this year.