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

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. What that tells me is that Big Tech is desperate to build as much compute capacity as it can, as fast as it can.”

An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that the company respects its colleagues’ right to voice their opinions.

Officials in Seattle voted to approve a one-year moratorium on new large-scale artificial intelligence data centers to allow time for the city to regulate the projects. The proposal came after four developers approached a local utility provider to pitch building five large scale facilities in Seattle. Two of those developers have since withdrawn their proposals following public outcry, the Seattle Times reported.

“Currently, we don’t have any plans to construct data centers within the Seattle city limits,” the Amazon spokesperson said. “Across the communities where we do operate data centers, we’re committed to being a responsible neighbor — investing in local economic development while prioritizing water and energy efficiency that exceeds industry standards.”

Seattle joins a growing list of cities and counties that are seeking to place limits on the explosive growth of AI data centers. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 14 states are considering legislation that would pause or ban new data centers. A report from Data Center Watch found that in 2025, at least $156 billion in data center projects were blocked or delayed amid local opposition and litigation. 

Tech’s hyperscalers are showing no signs of slowing down.

Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, and Meta have committed roughly $700 billion this year to capital expenditures, mostly for AI infrastructure. At the same time, the tech giants and others in the industry are looking for ways to cut costs, including through layoffs.

The 30,000 corporate job cuts at Amazon that Schloesser cited have all come since October, part of an attempt by CEO Andy Jassy to remove layers and slash bureaucracy so the company can operate like what he calls the “world’s largest startup.”

In February, Amazon announced it plans to spend $200 billion on capital expenditures this year, with the majority of that going toward AI infrastructure. It reaffirmed that forecast in April.

Schloesser, who has worked at Amazon for nearly six years, urged Seattle officials to require data center developers to commit to using renewable energy to power facilities and no longer use non-disclosure agreements or shell companies when announcing new projects.

“You’ve got to provide good jobs building these things, and you’ve got to pay a new tax that funds city jobs every time you conduct a large layoff,” Schloesser said.

Amazon said it continues to reevaluate how its data centers operate, including working to power them with carbon-free energy and make them more energy efficient. The company said it was also aiming to return more water to communities than it uses in its data centers by 2030.

Schloesser and the two other Amazon engineers who spoke at the hearings, Liesl Wigand and Darius Irani, are part of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. The group of current and former Amazon workers has repeatedly pressed the e-retailer on its climate stance, treatment of its workforce and other issues.

In November, the group penned a letter to Amazon executives calling on the company to establish a “more responsible rollout of AI,” and “get real about the costs of AI and the guardrails we need.”

Wigand, who has worked for Amazon for more than 12 years, characterized Amazon’s push to embrace the technology as an “all-costs-justified AI build out.”

“The biggest issue is a belief that AI should be how we solve everything, while ignoring the resources that it costs,” Wigand said. “This culture is omnipresent across tech. That’s why local governments, in collaboration with community stakeholders, should be setting the terms for data center buildout.”

The one-year moratorium was approved unanimously by the council’s Land Use and Sustainability Committee on Wednesday.

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