Andy Jassy is president and CEO of Amazon, having succeeded founder Jeff Bezos in July 2021. He spent years building and running Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud-computing business he launched in 2003 and grew into the world's largest cloud provider and Amazon's profit engine. As CEO he now oversees all of Amazon - e-commerce, logistics, devices, advertising, and cloud.
Jassy has bet the company on artificial intelligence. He told shareholders Amazon expects roughly $200 billion in capital expenditure in 2026, much of it for AI and data-center capacity, and has struck enormous compute deals - expanding an agreement with OpenAI in early 2026 and a multiyear arrangement with Anthropic under which Amazon is investing billions and Anthropic commits to spend heavily on AWS.
That transformation has come with sweeping job cuts. Amazon eliminated about 14,000 corporate roles in October 2025 and announced roughly 16,000 more in early 2026 - around 30,000 positions, or about a tenth of its corporate and tech workforce. Jassy framed the cuts as a fight against bureaucracy and a push for speed rather than a purely financial or AI-driven move, even as he warned that AI would shrink Amazon's workforce over time.
What they control
- Amazon: the dominant U.S. e-commerce marketplace and one of the largest private employers in the world
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): the largest cloud-computing platform, underpinning much of the internet
- A vast logistics and delivery network rivaling traditional carriers
- A fast-growing advertising business and the Prime membership ecosystem
- Massive AI infrastructure spending and compute partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic
Key institutions & holdings
Succeeded Jeff Bezos in July 2021; about 1.5 million employees.
Built AWS into the world's largest cloud platform.
Amazon is a major investor; Anthropic commits large AWS spending.
Key facts
- Became Amazon CEO in July 2021 after building and leading AWS since 2003.
- Amazon expects about $200 billion in capital expenditure in 2026, heavily for AI and data centers.
- Cut about 14,000 corporate jobs in October 2025 and roughly 16,000 more in early 2026.
- Amazon agreed in 2025 to a record $2.5 billion FTC settlement over deceptive Prime sign-ups and cancellations.
- His net worth was estimated around $500 million in 2025; his 2024 pay package was about $40 million.
Timeline
- 2003Launches Amazon Web Services, which becomes the cloud market leader.
- 2021-07Succeeds Jeff Bezos as Amazon CEO.
- 2025-09Amazon agrees to a $2.5 billion FTC settlement over Prime 'dark patterns.'
- 2025-10Cuts about 14,000 corporate jobs in an anti-bureaucracy push.
- 2026Announces about 16,000 more job cuts and projects ~$200B in AI-heavy capital spending.
Controversies
Mass layoffs · 2025-2026
Amazon cut roughly 30,000 corporate and tech jobs across late 2025 and early 2026; Jassy attributed them to culture and agility while also warning AI would reduce headcount.
FTC Prime 'dark patterns' settlement · 2025
Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion - $1 billion in penalties and $1.5 billion in refunds to about 35 million customers - to settle FTC claims it tricked users into Prime sign-ups and made cancellation hard.
Antitrust and market power · ongoing
Amazon faces ongoing antitrust scrutiny over how its marketplace dominance affects third-party sellers, prices, and competition.
Network
- Jeff BezosPredecessor and founderHand-picked Jassy as Amazon's second CEO.
- Matt GarmanLieutenantCEO of AWS, the cloud business Jassy built.
- AnthropicPartnerAI lab Amazon has invested in and that runs on AWS.
- OpenAICloud customer/partnerExpanded a multibillion-dollar compute deal with Amazon in 2026.
Why this matters
Amazon shapes how Americans shop, what millions of workers earn, and - through AWS - what infrastructure the internet runs on. Decisions Jassy makes about automation, AI spending, and headcount ripple across the labor market and the digital economy, while the company's scale keeps drawing regulators' attention to whether its dominance is fair to workers, sellers, and consumers.