Amazon stock is up 170% since the start of 2023. It is absolutely cheaper to fire employees who are owed hundreds of thousands or even millions in stock grants over the next 2-3 years and replace them with new hires. Doubly so at Amazon where vesting is all back-loaded (5/15/40/40).
Doesn't that also make current employees nervous that the same will happen to them, and that their backloaded grants are at risk until they cross the finish line? It would seem pretty de-motivating, even for those who aren't let go in this RIF.
Firing people to make new new hire grants is more expensive