According to a US Government Accountability Office report released on July 22, 2026, the number of Amazon workers relying on federal food and health assistance programs like SNAP and Medicaid has nearly tripled since 2020. Commissioned by Senator Bernie Sanders, the data surfaces as Amazon ramps up its capital expenditures to $220 billion to fuel artificial intelligence and AWS data center demands.
The GAO Findings and the Federal Safety Net Gap
A government watchdog report requested by Senator Bernie Sanders lists Amazon among the top employers of Medicaid and SNAP recipients in every state that supplied employer data. The Government Accountability Office collected employment records from 15 agencies across 11 states—specifically Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington—to capture a snapshot of September 2025.
The resulting dataset showed Amazon near the top of nearly every state ledger. The e-commerce giant’s active employee rosters linked to 11,338 Medicaid enrollees and 12,346 SNAP recipients across those states. Nationally, the broader picture reflects systemic wage pressures, with the GAO estimating that 13.8 million working Americans relied on Medicaid and 10.6 million on SNAP during the study’s timeframe.
Senator Sanders sharply criticized the trend, stating in public remarks that “American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations.” While Walmart topped the absolute numbers with 16,055 workers on Medicaid and 15,515 on SNAP, Amazon’s rapid ascent on the list has drawn intense scrutiny from labor advocates and lawmakers alike.
Corporate Capex Surges as AWS Chases AI Compute
The workforce dependency metrics arrive as Amazon channels unprecedented capital into artificial intelligence infrastructure. On its Q4 2025 earnings call in February 2026, CEO Andy Jassy guided capital expenditures to approximately $200 billion for the fiscal year, a dramatic increase from the $131.8 billion spent in 2025. By July 30, 2026, that guidance was revised upward to $220 billion, driven primarily by soaring memory prices and unrelenting demand for AWS cloud capacity.
AWS generated $37.59 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2026 alone, marking a 28% year-over-year growth rate—the segment’s fastest expansion in 15 quarters. Single-quarter capital expenditures hit $44.2 billion as the company raced to provision hardware clusters. Hyperscalers are monetizing compute capacity as fast as supply chains can deliver it, but this heavy infrastructure investment highlights a widening chasm between massive capital deployment and frontline compensation.
Workforce Scaling and the Structural Defense
Amazon has vigorously contested the framing of the GAO report. Company spokesperson Rachael Lighty told The Washington Post and CNN that the rankings rely on raw headcounts rather than workforce percentages, which inherently skews results against larger employers. Furthermore, eligibility for federal assistance is determined by total household income and family size rather than individual wages, meaning companies offering substantial part-time employment opportunities will naturally show a higher volume of eligible staff.
The e-commerce giant’s global workforce scaled dramatically over the decade, moving from about 798,000 employees at the end of 2019 to a peak of 1.61 million in 2021, settling at 1,576,000 workers by the end of 2025. This doubling of the total employee base explains much of the numerical shift noted in the comparative GAO iterations. In late 2025, Amazon also committed $1 billion toward raising base pay for its US fulfillment and transportation workers, attempting to bridge internal wage gaps even as its macro-level capital allocation heavily favors automated data center expansion.
The 30-Second Verdict: While Amazon points to its massive total headcount and part-time availability as statistical drivers for its high placement on public assistance rolls, the juxtaposition of a $220 billion AI infrastructure budget with thousands of workers utilizing SNAP and Medicaid underscores ongoing debates over corporate wealth distribution and wage adequacy in the automation era.
