The start of 2026 has brought another wave of layoffs in the tech industry. In the first weeks of January, major companies like Amazon and Meta announced job cuts.
Even if the numbers are lower than in previous years, the risk of layoffs still affects the job market. More companies, from large corporations to start-ups, are using AI to write code and automate routine tasks, saving money and reducing their need for staff.
In 2025, 123,941 tech workers lost their jobs in 269 companies, down from 150,000 layoffs in 549 companies in 2024, according to Layoffs. Last year was tough because AI played a clearer role in these job losses. A report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that AI was responsible for at least 55,000 layoffs in the United States in 2025.
A 2025 World Economic Forum (WEF) survey found that more than 41% of companies worldwide expect to cut jobs in the next five years due to the rise of AI. Below is a list of tech companies that have announced layoffs so far in 2026.
Amazon
On January 29, Amazon announced it would cut about 16,000 corporate jobs worldwide. This is its largest round of layoffs since October 2025, when it announced plans to cut 14,000 jobs. News reports suggested Amazon was aiming for a total of 30,000 job cuts. The company is one of the few to link these dismissals to increased AI use directly.
This generation of AI is the most revolutionary technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before, Amazon said in an internal letter last year.
Since then, Amazon has shifted its message. CEO Andy Jassy told analysts during the third-quarter earnings call that the layoffs were not really financially driven and were not even really AI-driven. Instead, he suggested the company has too much bureaucracy.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, said the latest layoffs are part of a larger effort to reduce bureaucracy within the company.
Meta
According to the New York Times, Meta plans to cut about 10% of its employees in its Reality Labs division, which works on products related to the metaverse.
Reality Labs has about 15,000 employees working on virtual reality headsets and social networks. The team also makes Meta’s Quest mixed-reality headsets, Ray-Ban smart glasses, and Augmented Reality Glasses. The Metaverse was a major project led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who invested heavily in it, but the business has lost more than $60 billion since 2020.
Pinterest will lay off more than 15% of its staff as part of a global restructuring, according to Business Insider. The company is also reportedly reducing its office space.
We are making organizational changes to further deliver on our AI-forward strategy, which includes hiring AI-proficient talent, a Pinterest spokesperson said.
As a result, we have made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members. We are grateful for their service and are supporting them with separation packages and benefits they added.
Expedia
Expedia said it let some employees go in January, but did not specify how many. The online travel company also announced new job openings.
We are cutting some roles and creating new ones as we carefully consider the skills we need for the future. We are also improving our structure and reducing management layers to move faster and be more accountable. These decisions are difficult, and we appreciate the contributions of our colleagues who are affected, an Expedia Group spokesperson said.
In the first three quarters of the financial year 2025-26, many companies have shed thousands of employees, but the figure includes voluntary exits as well. Some companies have also added jobs during the year.
