Amazon engineers in Seattle slam employer for building AI data centers while laying off 30,000 staffers

Key points

• The Amazon headquarters in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, US, on Tuesday, Oct.
• 28, 2025. A group of Amazon engineers appeared at Seattle City Council hearings on Wednesday to throw their support behind efforts to regulate the development of giant AI data centers in the area, which are getting constructed while their employer is engaged in mass layoffs.
• "It's been reported that this year, Amazon is spending $200 billion dollars on capital, with most of it going to data centers and AI," Patrick Schloesser, a software engineer at Amazon Web Services, said at a hearing.
• "Microsoft is spending $190 billion.
• Meanwhile, the leaders at my company have laid off 30,000 corporate employees in the last eight months.