• Amazon plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs to become leaner in the AI era, the company announced.
• Audible CEO Bob Carrigan addressed the cuts to its audiobook division in an email to employees.
• Amazon staff in advertising, recruitment, payments, and Fire TV are affected by the cuts, Business Insider has learned.

Amazon announced Tuesday that it plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs as part of a broader effort to become leaner in an era shaped by AI.

Employees in the US, Canada, and Europe have been receiving notifications about the cuts, according to internal Slack posts viewed by Business Insider.

A notification to affected workers, sent by Amazon’s HR chief, Beth Galetti, and posted to Amazon’s internal Slack, suggested that laid-off employees would receive full pay and benefits for the next 90 days, plus a severance offer.

Galetti announced the cuts in a blog post on Tuesday, stating that despite the company’s performance, it is reducing jobs as a result of AI rapidly changing the world.

Business Insider viewed an internal breakdown of roughly 7,500 employees who first received layoff notices on Tuesday. More than 78% of those roles were held by managers assigned at levels five to seven, an internal designation that covers junior to senior managers.

More than 80% of the employees in the breakdown worked in Amazon’s retail business, spanning e-commerce, human resources, and logistics.

According to internal Slack messages seen by Business Insider, some of the Amazon employees affected by the cuts also work in advertising, recruitment, payments, devices, Fire TV, and customer behavior analytics.

Amazon’s mass job cuts extend to its audiobook and podcast division, Audible. CEO Bob Carrigan told employees in an email Tuesday, which was seen by Business Insider, that affected workers have been notified and additional organizational changes would follow “to add focus and speed” to the business’s most critical growth areas.

Carrigan said that Audible is “laser-focused on making sure we are organized and resourced for continued strength in the years ahead.”

Tapas Roy, vice president of device software and services, emailed the organization saying the company cut roles within its OS & Services team and asked remaining workers to “lean in on AI.”

Some employees in Germany received a security alert on their work devices indicating that their access to company systems had been placed in “reduced functionality mode,” according to an internal Slack message reviewed by Business Insider.

The message explained that this status typically appears when an employee’s role is being closed or transferred. The company notified the local works council of the job cuts in Germany, according to a memo shared internally by Nils Gräf, Amazon’s director for Germany, which was seen by Business Insider.

Amazon has a total of 1.55 million employees globally. The cuts would represent about 4% of Amazon’s roughly 350,000 corporate employees.

Amazon declined to comment, referring Business Insider to Galetti’s earlier blog post.

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• Jason Owen claimed Martin Toha, the CEO of the credit data startup Array, promised him a large equity stake.
• A judge threw out Owen’s case, saying the former chief strategy officer should’ve gotten it in writing.
• The company was valued at over $1 billion in 2022 and last raised money in 2023, Pitchbook data shows.

A lawsuit against the billion-dollar fintech startup Array by an early employee who claimed he was owed as much as $70 million has been thrown out.

Jason Owen, who was Array’s chief strategy officer, sued the company and its leader, Martin Toha, in 2022, claiming that Toha had denied him a promised equity stake. He claimed to have been fired for expressing concerns about unethical business practices, which Array denied.

After three years of litigation, the case went to trial in a New York state business court, with testimony from Owen, Toha, and people who were in the company’s orbit during its early days. Justice Joel Cohen said that none of them testified clearly enough to back up Owen’s version of events.

“Experienced people like Mr. Toha and Mr. Owen would understand that multimillion-dollar equity grants generally are not accomplished by a phone call with your boss,” the judge said at the conclusion of the trial on October 17, according to a transcript.

Array helps banks and credit unions offer credit score and identity protection tools to their customers to help build loyalty. It was valued at nearly $1.5 billion, Owen said in his lawsuit, and last raised funds in 2023 at an unspecified valuation, according to Pitchbook.

In his lawsuit, Owen claimed that he was fired after he began raising questions about some of Array’s early customers, who included company insiders and other associates of Toha who resold credit data to customers, like credit-repair businesses, that are viewed by some regulators and large credit bureaus as abusive. One of Toha’s previous start-ups, Profinity, settled with the New York attorney general in 2015 over claims of defrauding consumers.

None of those allegations were addressed by the judge, who focused on the existence of what Owen claimed to be a deal where he would be awarded 5% of Array’s equity over its first $100 million.

“The Court’s ruling validated what we’ve been saying all along,” spokespeople for Array said in an email. “There was no agreement, and his allegations of bad conduct by Array were, in our opinion, an effort to intimidate us into paying him money that we did not owe.”

Owen and one of his lawyers didn’t reply to requests for comment.

• Jennifer Tapner is a 52-year-old who moved into the senior living community she managed.
• She eats all her meals in the same restaurant as the 200 residents, whom she now considers her friends.
• Living alongside older adults has made her a more empathetic listener.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jennifer Tapner, Executive Director of The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, a senior living community. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Two years ago, I was managing 10 senior living communities across the country when I started to miss the human interaction and relationships with the very people I was working for — older adults.

An executive director role within my company became available, and while most viewed this as a step back in my career, I raised my hand for the job, eager to be in closer contact with residents.

The job was based in Brooklyn Heights, New York, too far to commute from my home near Philadelphia, so I packed my bags and decided to move with my German Shepherd Chihuahua mix dog, Diego. I return home to my husband on the weekends.

We took an 11^th-floor apartment in the same high-rise building as all the other 200 residents. While I am working during the day managing the community, outside work hours, I live alongside everyone else.

I have my meals with the residents

My day starts at 7 a.m. with a run, as I’m training for the New York City Marathon.

All the residents get really excited when they see me leaving and then arriving home each morning. No matter the weather, they greet me in the lobby, asking me how the run was, how the training is going, and if I am having fun preparing for the race.

They’re all planning a cheer squad for me on the day of the marathon. I genuinely think they are enjoying the training and anticipation more than I am.

Although I have a kitchen in my apartment, I haven’t used the stove once during my entire stay, opting instead to eat my meals with the residents in the dining room.

After work, we walk our dogs together, having formed a dog walking club. All the residents put their dogs in little vests with illumination strips.

Even though I could disappear to my room every night, I love joining in with whatever they’re all doing. We’ll play games, watch movies, go to a Mets game, and have pizza parties on each other’s floors.

I cherish these interactions

The interactions with these older people have been among the most cherished experiences of my life. The stories they share with me in our deep conversations have given me a different perspective on life — one that reveals how fleeting life is.

Before this year, I recall listening to the concerns they shared — how the shower pressure was low, or how they needed more warm, communal spaces in the winter — but not sharing their perspective, because I didn’t see things from their point of view. But when I moved in, immersed in their world, I could feel what they felt, see what they saw.

It’s made me a better listener, even more empathetic than I was previously.

They have so many stories to share

Recently, I saw a resident leave the restaurant without eating dinner. Following him, I asked why he hadn’t eaten.

“I’m just really sad today,” he said.

He asked if we could go on a walk with Diego as a bit of a distraction, and that night, we talked endlessly while walking around Brooklyn Heights. Afterward, he was like a different person, happy and light.

This is a moment I would have never experienced had I not been living on-site. I’m here to witness their loneliness and sadness, and sit with them in it.

I believe older adults are often overlooked in society, particularly those who lack family to visit frequently. But we as a society need to learn to pause and listen to their voices. They aren’t just numbers; these seniors are individuals with rich histories, diverse professions, varied experiences, and compelling stories.

There will be times when I need advice or thoughts, and I now have 200 mentors to consult. One resident teaches at Juilliard, so I’ve gone to him to speak about program ideas. Another was a businessperson, so I spoke with her about business perspectives on plans I have.

I might have thought that setting boundaries would be difficult to do living here, but this hasn’t been the case. Residents respect that when I’m “off duty,” I don’t want to talk about work.

When they see me in the morning or evenings, I’m just another resident to them — not a director.

Although at times exhausting, keeping up with the residents and their busy social lives, I have no regrets. I won’t be able to sustain this lifestyle forever, but for now, it’s fantastic.

• This was a historic year for Miss USA, which took place last Friday in Reno, Nevada.
• Miss Nevada Mary Sickler was the first Miss USA contestant with a public alopecia diagnosis.
• Miss Congeniality winner Tetra Shockley, 44, became the oldest woman to compete in the pageant.

The 74th Miss USA pageant was full of historic firsts last Friday night.

Miss New Hampshire MonaLesa Brackett competed in a hijab and burkini during the pageant, while fourth runner-up Miss Nevada Mary Sickler became the first contestant with a public alopecia diagnosis to walk the Miss USA stage.

This was also the first year that the top 20 at Miss USA included mothers and women over the age of 28.

Here’s all the history that was made at Miss USA 2025.

Tetra Shockley, 44, became the oldest woman to ever compete at Miss USA.

In September 2023, the Miss Universe Organization — which oversees the Miss USA pageant — announced that it was lifting the age limit for contestants, giving all women 18 and over a chance at the crown. Miss USA 2024 was the first time in the pageant’s history that women over 28 were allowed to compete.

On Friday, Miss Delaware 2025 Tetra Shockley became the oldest woman to ever compete at Miss USA. The married mother of two, who is a licensed attorney and minister, also won this year’s Miss Congeniality award.

This was the first Miss USA featuring contestants selected from an open casting call.

Due to leadership turmoil behind the scenes of the Miss USA Organization, multiple state directors who had resigned or left the organization were never replaced. This meant that eight state pageants for Miss USA were never held, and eight Miss USA state titleholders still needed to be crowned.

In September, new CEO Thom Brodeur announced that the organization was holding an open casting call to find the eight titleholders. The winners were announced on September 29, three weeks before the Miss USA 2025 pageant began.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thom Brodeur (@officialthombrodeur)

Although they had little time to prepare, four contestants from the open casting call placed in the top 20: Miss Idaho Jenny Crawford, Miss New Hampshire MonaLesa Brackett, Miss Oregon Chantea McIntyre, and Miss Vermont Victoria Chuah.

This was the first year that the top 20 featured contestants over the age of 28.

Miss USA 2024 might have been the first year women over 28 were eligible to compete, but no contestant over 27 made it to the top 20.

Seventeen of 51 contestants were older than 28 at Miss USA 2025, and five of them placed in the top 20. They included Crawford, 37; Brackett, 36; McIntyre, 43; Miss Rhode Island Brianna Vega, 29; and Miss New Jersey Ivy Harrington, 30.

McIntyre ultimately placed second runner-up, while Harrington was named first runner-up.

Miss Oregon and Miss Idaho were the first mothers to place at Miss USA.

In August 2022, the Miss Universe Organization announced that married women and mothers would be eligible to compete at all national pageants starting in 2023.

Crawford — a former Los Angeles Lakers Girl and San Diego Chargers Girl — told the Miss USA audience after she made it to the top 20 that she had a 2-year-old and planned to try her first-ever peanut butter and jelly sandwich with him someday. She won this year’s People’s Choice Award at the pageant.

McIntyre, a mother of four, became the first married woman and the first mother to make it to the top five at Miss USA. She is also an author, model, and owner of a clothing brand.

Miss New Hampshire was the first woman to compete at Miss USA in a hijab and burkini.

In a previous interview, Brackett said she felt “so fly” competing in a burkini at pageants.

“So many people thought, ‘How will the judges know you’re fit?'” she added. “The way I stand, the way I walk, the way I talk, you know I have abs.”

Miss Nevada Mary Sickler was the first Miss USA contestant with a public alopecia diagnosis.

The 22-year-old is now using her platform to raise awareness for alopecia. During the preliminary competition on Wednesday night, Sickler wore a bejeweled cap instead of her wig to spotlight the condition.

She walked onstage with Brackett, who was wearing her hijab, as they both made history.

• Business Insider is seeking nominations for this year’s list of rising stars of venture capital.
• Please submit your nominations via the Google form by Friday, November 10.

Business Insider is assembling this year’s list of rising stars of venture capital — our definitive roster of the up-and-coming investors finding (and winning) the next breakout companies.

We’re looking for sharp, rigorous investors who are making their mark in Startupland, whether they sit at a blue-chip firm or a scrappy emerging fund.

Submit your suggestions below or via this form.

In the past, we’ve included vice presidents and principals who became partners at their firms, such as Deedy Das at Menlo Ventures and Abby Meyers at Bain Capital Ventures. Solo capitalist Rex Salisbury went on to raise a second fund, while IVP’s Yuri Lee now invests out of a multibillion-dollar pension fund as head of venture capital.

Take a look at our 2024 list here.

Submit a nomination below or through this form by 11:59 p.m. EST, November 10 for your selection be considered. We can’t guarantee feedback on individual submissions due to volume.

Who qualifies

• US-based venture capitalists across roles, from vice presidents to principals to partners
• Investors with clear, recent wins: sourcing or leading competitive deals, developing theses ahead of the crowd, or delivering outsize portfolio support
• We welcome nominations from funds of any size, including emerging funds; self-nominations are fine

What to include in a nomination

• Role and firm, plus any promotion history within the firm
• Notable deals in the past 12 months: their role and how they helped support the investment
• Evidence of edge: backgrounds or perspectives that give them an unfair advantage in investing; examples of winning competitive processes; measurable influence inside their firms and ecosystems

Questions?

Include a contact in your nomination, and a reporter will follow up as needed.

• Meta reorganizes its metaverse unit, shifting Vishal Shah to its AI division, per an internal memo.
• Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns now lead Meta’s metaverse efforts, focusing on VR and mobile.
• Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said the metaverse remains a priority.

Meta is reorganizing its metaverse unit and shifting an executive who led the efforts to its AI division.

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told employees on Monday in an internal memo, which was seen by Business Insider, that Gabriel Aul, who led products for its virtual worlds, Meta Horizon, and Ryan Cairns, who is in charge of Meta’s virtual reality hardware, will now lead the company’s metaverse bets.

“The priority of the metaverse work remains unchanged, and it continues to be a companywide priority,” Bosworth wrote in the memo. “We’ve proved our thesis to the industry, and we continue to see competitors enter this space to try and catch up to us, so we need to continue to press our hard-earned advantage.”

Vishal Shah, who helped lead its metaverse bets over the past four years, announced in another memo that he’s transitioning to Meta Superintelligence Labs, according to a copy of the memo seen by Business Insider.

Shah said he’s taking on a new role as vice president of AI products in the Products and Applied Research unit within MSL and will report directly to Nat Friedman, one of MSL’s leaders.

The reorganization of the metaverse team comes as the company’s total investment in mixed and virtual reality is set to top $100 billion this year.

Meta declined to comment and confirmed the move with Business Insider.

Last week, Meta cut 600 jobs in its AI division, MSL, and also laid off employees in its risk organization, telling workers that their roles are being replaced by AI.

Read Bosworth’s full memo below:

An update to Metaverse’s structure

I hope you’ve had time to read Vishal’s update about him taking on a new role in MSL leading product and cross-company integrations on the Products and Applied Research Team. I’m pleased that he will oversee the integration of personal superintelligence with FoA and RL’s portfolio. I’m confident that his deep expertise and experience with RL will accelerate our work.

It is thanks to Vishal’s leadership for the last four years that we find ourselves well-equipped 1 deliver on our vision and strategy. We already have the right leadership and team in place.

Gabriel Aul will step in to lead the Metaverse PG. Metaverse will continue to focus on creating high-quality experiences for both VR and mobile. Jason Rubin, Samantha Ryan, and Thamara Sekhar will move to report to Gabe. We will also welcome a new leader, Saxs Person, to lead the Horizon Experiences team under Gabe.

Ryan Cairns will continue to lead Horizon OS which will become an org-level PG, and he’ll report directly to me. The Horizon OS charter and reporting structure remain unchanged. They will continue to focus on building quality hardware and software for the metaverse, especially ahead of our big launches and exciting VR roadmap. Metaverse and Horizon OS will continue to work closely together to ensure an integrated product experience across our devices and platforms. Gabe’s and Ryan’s posts will have more on this, and you can ask me more questions during Tuesdays with Boz tomorrow.

The priority of the metaverse work remains unchanged and it continues to be a companywide priority. We’ve proved our thesis to the industry and we continue to see competitors enter this space to try and catch up to us, so we need to continue to press our hard-earned advantage.

VR is evolving beyond its roots in gaming to become a broader platform for entertainment, productivity, and connection as we deepen our Al and general compute capabilities. Mobile is starting to attract young social gamers at a greater scale and our Al creation tools are accelerating world-building to create the flywheel. We have the right team and strategy in place and now we need to focus on execution.

Read the memo Shah posted about his new role below:

A New Chapter: Transitioning from Metaverse PG to Leading Product for MSL PAR

After four years in Reality Labs, I’m making the simultaneously difficult yet exciting decision transition from leading the Metaverse Product Group to taking on a new role as VP, AI Products in Products & Applied Research (PAR) within Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), reporting Nat Friedman. In this role, I’ll lead product management and oversee MSL’s integrations in the Family of Apps and Reality Labs. My first day will be Monday, November 3.

While the Metaverse hype has thankfully died down, we have been hard at work building over the last few years. We laid the foundations for VR hardware, have become market leaders in competitive categories, and developed a very exciting device roadmap to broaden appeal, invested years in our new Horizon engine to support a much higher level of concurrency and fidelity. We rebuilt the avatar stack, created a new house style, and will introduce photorealistic codec avatars. We brought Horizon mobile to market, have exciting Al-centric tools, and a compelling roadmap designed to make world-building much easier for everyone.

This work has been really awesome and personally rewarding, and I am very confident we har the right leadership team to carry it forward. We’ll share more details on what’s next in the RL and Metaverse Org groups soon, so stay tuned.

I truly believe that Al is one of the most transformative shifts of our generation, and I’m excite for the new challenge of leading Product for PAR. My experiences at Reality Labs and Instagram have shaped how I think about building products that connect billions of people anc drive innovation. Working across so many different parts of Meta over the years will be valuable in ensuring the work we’re doing in Al can truly scale and deliver value across the entire company.

As Mark shared at Connect this year, Al and the metaverse are deeply intertwined, with Al enabling more personalized, context-aware, and meaningful experiences. Our goal of building personal superintelligence will help unlock new opportunities for creators, businesses, and communities in the metaverse. I plan to remain very involved in building bridges between MSL and RL that will enable us to shape how we deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people across all devices.

Thanks everyone for your ongoing support and for following along with me on this next chapter. Let’s keep building.

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