In an effort to reduce office space globally, Amazon’s real estate team plans to eliminate 49,000 desks across the company this year.
Amazon’s Global Real Estate and Facilities (GREF) team detailed plans to reduce the company’s average office vacancy rate from about 31% to 22.9% in 2026, according to a transcript of an all-team meeting obtained by Amazon. Puget Sound Business Journal.
The plan could eliminate millions of square feet of office space across Amazon’s corporate offices as it aims to downsize to a level comparable to its current workforce.
Amazon aims to reduce costs by pouring billions into AI
Amazon is looking to invest billions of dollars in artificial intelligence and is looking for ways to reduce the cost of raising capital.
Senior real estate manager Martha Schwarzkopf Doyle said at the conference that Amazon could achieve its goals by allowing leases to expire, putting offices into “hibernation,” and subleasing or terminating leases when most of the offices are vacant.
“If you were to imagine a packed Taylor Swift concert and give each person a desk, that’s how many desks you would need to get rid of,” Schwarzkopf Doyle said.
According to the company, eliminating 49,000 desks will free up more than 10 million square feet of office space. Puget Sound Business Journal.
In Seattle alone, Amazon is the region’s largest office footprint, employing approximately 65,000 employees across approximately 17.92 million square feet. As of 2025, Amazon had 40.2 million square feet of office space nationwide and an additional 28.3 million square feet of office space internationally.
Amazon did not say where the reductions in office space would occur and declined to specify.
“We regularly evaluate our office footprint based on the needs of our business and employees,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement, according to the newspaper. Puget Sound Business Journal. “Since 2023, when employees began returning to the office, we have prioritized spaces that foster innovation and collaboration that drive work and ensure we serve our customers.”
The Denny Triangle building is among Seattle’s latest office space reductions.
Last week, Amazon confirmed it was letting the lease on its 251,000-square-foot building in Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood expire. Its offices have space for approximately 1,500 employees.
Amazon is aiming to achieve a global vacancy rate of 22.9% this year, but Schwarzkopf-Doyle said the company’s ideal vacancy rate is 11%, which allows employees to have space without crowding.
Amazon also outlined plans to add 1.8 million square feet of new office space this year, but it’s unclear where that space will be located.
GREF staff heard about the plan just before CEO Andy Jassy announced to investors that Amazon would spend $200 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) capital spending this year. A few weeks later, the company announced it would invest $50 billion in OpenAI.
Some of Amazon’s real estate remains unused, despite the reinstatement of the five-day internal policy that went into effect last year. Amazon’s average U.S. occupancy rate from January 4 to February 28 was 29%. Overseas, the average occupancy rate for buildings in Asia and Europe was 35% and 39%. of Puget Sound Business Journal.
Schwarzkopf Doyle noted that the excess office space is the result of a “change in workforce strategy.” Two rounds of layoffs resulted in approximately 30,000 employees being laid off, including approximately 4,500 in Washington state, in October 2025 and January 2026.
Other major technology companies have similarly prioritized cost reductions to fund AI investments, with Microsoft recently admitting that it has no plans to continue construction on the five buildings included in its $5 billion Redmond campus expansion.
Follow Jason Sutich on X. Submit your news tips here.
