Amazon reportedly began a cull of 9,000 staff from its AWS and HR divisions, a move it revealed last month as part of a strategy to reduce costs and boost its long-term position.

CNBC reported messages to affected staff from AWS CEO Adam Selipsky and head of HR Beth Galetti explained they are in line for separation payments, transitional health insurance benefits and external job placement support.

Selipsky reportedly noted the overall business and macroeconomic environment required the company to focus “on identifying and putting our resources behind our top priorities”.

AWS has been a cash cow for its parent company. It holds a commanding lead in the public cloud sector over Microsoft and Google.

The latest round of lay offs impacted staff in the US, Canada and Costa Rica.

They add to cuts of 18,000 staff announced in November 2022.