Cloud News
Andy Jassy’s 5 Boldest Remarks On AWS, Layoffs, Chips And AI
Mark Haranas
Here are Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s biggest statements to shareholders Thursday around AWS, his generative AI vision, the company’s 27,000 layoffs and how enterprises are focused on cloud optimization.
From AWS facing “short-term headwinds” to customers looking at “cost-optimizing” versus cutting cloud costs, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has some very bold statements regarding his vision for Amazon Web Services.
“Many of these AWS customers tell us that they’re not cost-cutting as much as cost-optimizing so they can take their resources and apply them to emerging and inventive new customer experiences they’re planning,” said Jassy in a letter to Amazon shareholders filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Jassy also discusses AWS’ Graviton CPU processors and the company’s vision for generative artificial intelligence.
[Related: AWS Confirms Layoffs Impacting ‘Single Digit Percentage’ Of Employees]
“A newer form of machine learning, called generative AI, has burst onto the scene and promises to significantly accelerate machine learning adoption,” said Amazon’s CEO. “We have been working on our own LLMs [Large Language Models] for a while now, believe it will transform and improve virtually every customer experience, and will continue to invest substantially in these models across all of our consumer, seller, brand, and creator experiences. … Let’s just say that LLMs and generative AI are going to be a big deal for customers, our shareholders, and Amazon.”
Andy Jassy, Amazon Layoffs
Before jumping into Jassy’s boldest statements to shareholders around his vision for AWS and the future, it’s key to note that Jassy was AWS’ longtime CEO. He was critical to the formation and growth of AWS for decades until he took over the reins at parent company Amazon in 2021.
“Amazon would be a different company if we’d slowed investment in AWS during that 2008-2009 period,” Jassy said in his letter to shareholders.
Some of the biggest news announcements from Amazon and AWS this year include a pair of large employee layoff rounds. In January, Amazon also said it would lay off 18,000 employees. CRN learned at the time that AWS would not be greatly affected by that round of layoffs. However, in March Amazon disclosed it will be cutting a total of 9,000 employees by the end of April. The cuts will primarily come from its AWS, PXT, advertising and Twitch organizations.
In his letter to Amazon shareholders, Jassy talks about AWS’ economic future, Amazon’s 27,000 layoffs, the company’s generative AI vision and how cloud customers are focused on optimization.
