Amazon engineers in Seattle slam employer for AI data amid layoffs
a group Amazon Engineers attended Seattle City Council hearings on Wednesday to support efforts to regulate the development of giant AI data centers being built in the area as their employers engage in mass layoffs.
“This year Amazon reportedly spent $200 billion on capital, and the bulk of that went to data centers and artificial intelligence,” Amazon Web Services software engineer Patrick Schloesser said at a hearing. he said. “Microsoft is spending $190 billion. Meanwhile, leaders at my company have laid off 30,000 corporate employees in the last eight months. This tells me that Big Tech is desperate to build as much computing capacity as possible, as quickly as possible.”
An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC that the company respects colleagues’ right to voice their opinions.
Officials in Seattle voted to approve a one-year moratorium on new large-scale AI data centers to give the city time to regulate the projects. The proposal comes after four developers approached a local utility provider to build five large-scale facilities in Seattle. Two of these developers withdrew their bids following public outcry. Seattle Times reported.
“We currently have no plans to build data centers within Seattle city limits,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “In the communities where we operate data centers, we are committed to being a responsible neighbor, prioritizing water and energy efficiency that exceeds industry standards while investing in local economic development.”
Seattle joins a growing list of cities and counties trying to put a lid on the explosive growth of AI data centers. according to National Conference of State Legislatures14 states are considering legislation that would pause or ban new data centers. a report Data Center Monitoring Found at least $156 billion worth of data center projects in 2025 blocked or delayed amid local opposition and lawsuits.
Tech’s hyperscalers show no signs of slowing down.
Amazon, Microsoftgoogle parent AlphabetAnd Meta We’ve allocated nearly $700 billion in capital expenditures this year, mostly for AI infrastructure. At the same time, tech giants and others in the industry are looking for ways to cut costs, including layoffs.
At Amazon, the 30,000 corporate layoffs Schloesser mentioned have all occurred since October as part of CEO Andy Jassy’s push to cut layers and cut red tape so the company can operate as what he calls “the world’s largest enterprise.”
In February, Amazon announced that it planned to spend $200 billion on capital expenditures this year, with the majority of that going to AI infrastructure. In April, this prediction was reconfirmed.
Schloesser, who has worked at Amazon for nearly six years, called on Seattle officials to require data center developers to use renewable energy to power the facilities and no longer use that energy. confidentiality agreements or shell companies when announcing new projects.
“You have to provide good jobs to build these, and every time you do a major layoff you have to pay a new tax that funds the jobs in the city,” Schloesser said.
Amazon said it continues to reevaluate how its data centers operate, including working to provide carbon-free energy and make them more energy efficient. The company also said it aims to return more water to communities than it uses in its data centers by 2030.
Schloesser and two other Amazon engineers who spoke at the hearings, Liesl Wigand and Darius Irani, are part of the Amazon Workers for Climate Justice. The group, made up of current and former Amazon employees, has repeatedly pressed the e-retailer on its climate stance, treatment of its workforce and other issues.
In November, the group wrote a letter to Amazon executives calling on the company to “deploy AI more responsibly” and “set out the facts about the costs of AI and the guardrails we need.”
Wigand, who has worked for Amazon for more than 12 years, described Amazon’s push to embrace the technology as an “all costs covered AI structure.”
“The biggest problem is the belief that AI should be the way to solve everything, while ignoring costly resources,” Wigand said. “This culture exists everywhere in technology. That’s why local governments, in collaboration with community stakeholders, must determine the terms for data center creation.”
The one-year moratorium was unanimously approved by the council’s Land Use and Sustainability Committee on Wednesday.
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