Amazon (AMZN  ) has made history many times over the years; however, this time it is for a less than favorable reasons - it has become the first public company to ever lost $1 trillion in market value.

Now while this is shocking at face value, keep in mind that there have only ever been a handful companies to reach the coveted trillion-dollar club and therefore could have not lost as much in market value. Amazon shared the title alongside the likes of Microsoft (MSFT  ), Alphabet (GOOGL  ), Tesla (TSLA  ), Meta Platforms (META  ), and Visa (V  ). Its market cap is now $960 billion, no longer a part of the trillion-dollar club. The top five U.S. tech companies, by revenue, have lost a combined $4 trillion in market value this year alone.

A combination of macroeconomic headwinds, geopolitical issues, and rising inflation have led to declining consumer sentiment and thus lower demand for discretionary purchases which are Amazon's bread and butter. This has led to disappointing earnings updates which have plummeted the Company's share price.

In a conversation with reporters Amazon's CFO, Brian Olsavsky, noted "We are seeing signs all around that, again, people's budgets are tight, inflation is still high, energy costs are an additional layer on top of that caused by other issues. We are preparing for what could be a slower growth period, like most companies."

Despite the fourth quarter typically being the Company's strongest as a result of holiday purchases in November / December, the Company anticipates this year to be different, with sales growth slowing as consumers taper down on expenses.

As a result, Amazon has begun to reevaluate its operations by taking measures to cut costs and protect its bottom line. The Company's spokesperson noted, "Our senior leadership team regularly reviews our investment outlook and financial performance, including as part of our annual operating plan review, which occurs in the fall each year. As part of this year's review, we're of course taking into account the current macro-environment and considering opportunities to optimize costs."

Amazon is not the only company that has been impacted - Microsoft's market value fell from its $2.5 billion peak to $1.84 billion, and Meta's fell from $1 trillion to $300 billion. While virtually no sector is immune to economic downturns, the country's tech giants have been disproportionately impacted as the pandemic-induced growth begins to fade.

Since November 15, the Company began conducted its largest wave of layoffs, shedding more than 10,000 employees across its global workforce and implement hiring freezes. The Company is also reassigning well-performing employees to more profitable projects while implementing PIP's (performance improvement plans) for low performers.

The Company has also shut down many of its unprofitable projects (in robotics, healthcare, and retail), closed doors of its physical stores and looked into ways to cut costs at its warehouses. Amazon's voice assistance division, Alexa, is on track to lose an estimated $10 billion this year alone, with one employee calling it "a colossal failure of imagination," and "a wasted opportunity".