Following the election of a new mayor in Seattle, one of Amazon’s top executives reaffirmed its commitment to the region Tuesday, promising, “We are not going anywhere.”

David Zapolsky, Amazon chief global affairs and legal officer, made the comment during an Amazon Community Impact Reception at The Spheres in Seattle, where he and others discussed the company’s philanthropic and civic initiatives from housing to food security.

“Obviously, this is a time of change, both in this region and around the world,” Zapolsky said. “Amazon remains committed to our home, this Puget Sound region. We are not going anywhere. And so we remain committed to building this community.”

It’s a rare public reaffirmation of the Seattle region as Amazon’s primary base. It follows years of political disputes over taxes and other city policies that contributed to Amazon shifting more of its workforce to Bellevue, Wash., and Northern Virginia.

With the arrival of Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson, Amazon must once again establish a working relationship with a city leader who ran on promises to address issues such as affordability, brought about in part by a tech boom that Amazon helped fuel.

Wilson defeated Mayor Bruce Harrell, a more business friendly leader than Amazon was used to dealing with during the tech giant’s strained relations with City Hall.

“I’ve tried to have a very supportive relationship, but also one on mutual accountability,” Harrell told GeekWire in January about his dealings with Amazon. “I think it’s working out well.”

During her campaign in September, Wilson told GeekWire that she aims to work with the tech sector and Amazon on innovative solutions to civic challenges.

A longtime community organizer and Transit Riders Union co-founder, Wilson helped design and pass Seattle’s controversial JumpStart payroll expense tax in 2020. A majority of the revenue — $360 million in 2024 — is generated from 10 companies, including Amazon. 

“Obviously Amazon and the other big tech companies are very important players in our city and in our economy, and so I think it’s very important that the city has working relationships there,” she said.

In the same election that ushered in Wilson, voters also overwhelmingly approved Proposition 2, a plan hatched by Harrell and City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck that will reshape the city’s business and occupation (B&O) tax that applies to gross revenue. It will impact both small startups and large tech companies such as Amazon.

According to public records, Zapolsky gave $550 to Harrell’s re-election campaign. Amazon HR chief Beth Galetti ($650) and Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington ($550) are among others from Amazon who contributed.

During Tuesday’s event at The Spheres, Amazon spotlighted its philanthropic efforts and the progress being made across the region, including:

• $900 million committed through its Housing Fund to create or preserve more than 10,000 affordable homes.
• 4.5 million meals delivered to families in need since 2020.
• 380,000 bed nights provided through Mary’s Place to families experiencing homelessness.

Zapolsky said Amazon’s community strategy shifted as the company rapidly expanded in Seattle. He said employees and leaders have always cared about their community, but the company’s efforts were informal and relatively small-scale in its earlier days. By 2009 and 2010, Amazon had grown far faster than expected and “we were sort of backing into the scale that we have in the city,” Zapolsky said — prompting company leaders to recognize the need for a more organized approach.

From there, he said, Amazon began applying its core business principles to civic work: taking a long-term view, listening to partners to understand what the community actually needs, and focusing on where Amazon’s unique capabilities — logistics, technology, legal expertise — could make the biggest impact, rather than just financial contributions.

“We’re still in the middle of the journey,” Zapolsky said.

Amazon counts more than 80,000 full- and part-time employees in the Puget Sound region. About 50,000 corporate and tech workers are in Seattle— a number that shrunk from about 60,000 in 2020 as more jobs shifted to Bellevue. The company cut 14,000 workers in broad layoffs in October, with 2,303 corporate employees in Washington state.

Zapolsky, who has been at Amazon 26 years, called his move from New York to Seattle 32 years ago the best decision he ever made. He cited the city’s amazing assets, from its people and diversity to its infrastructure improvements including the waterfront, convention center, and Climate Pledge Arena.

“Even government when it tries can’t screw this up,” he said, adding, again, “We’re here to stay. We want to continue working with our partners in the community, continue making the Puget Sound region better for our community and for our employees.”

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has a message for his city’s tech giants: it’s time to reinvest in the community.

Harrell, speaking at an event Wednesday hosted by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, said Seattle’s large companies have a “moral obligation to give back.”

The mayor specifically called out Microsoft and Amazon, citing their annual profits. “Microsoft … they made $88 billion last year … they have an obligation to give back to society, as does Amazon,” he said.

Harrell also described Seattle as a “city of innovation,” and one that has become a “great launching pad and fertile grounds for large companies.”

“That’s a good thing,” he said. “That’s not a bad thing.”

His comments reflect a delicate balance faced by Harrell and other city leaders — ensuring that Seattle’s global tech corporations continue to bolster the economy and tax base, while addressing the ripple effects on housing, transportation, and communities.

Harrell has delivered a similar message since taking office in 2022.

“What I’ve tried to do as mayor is to say, without ambiguity, that we value their jobs,” he said of Amazon, Seattle’s largest employer, in an interview with GeekWire earlier this year. “We also believe in a culture of accountability.”

During an appearance at the GeekWire Summit in 2022, Harrell urged the business and tech industry to get more involved in civic life to help make improvements in the city.

“There’s just plenty of opportunities for you all to engage,” he said, “and I’m just a call away to facilitate that engagement.”

Harrell, a former attorney in the telecom industry, is seeking re-election next month. He’s facing off against Katie Wilson, a progressive community organizer who won nearly 51% of the vote in the August primary.

The race is drawing national attention, in part due to the contrasting profiles and campaigns between the incumbent and challenger.

Wilson was inspired to run after Seattle voters earlier this year approved a measure creating a publicly funded social housing developer, financed by a 5% tax on salaries above $1 million paid to employees working in the city.

Harrell supported an alternative funding mechanism for social housing in Seattle. The proposed ordinance received financial support from Amazon and Microsoft.

The debate over who should pay for city services — and how much — underscores a broader tension between Seattle’s progressive tax ambitions and its reliance on the tech industry’s prosperity.

Harrell briefly spoke about taxes during Wednesday’s event, noting how the city “lost 10,000 jobs from Amazon” following years of friction over tax policy in Seattle. “That’s not a sustainable strategy, just to tax people,” he said.

However, Harrell earlier this year supported a proposal that would shield smaller companies from paying Seattle’s business & occupation tax — while increasing rates for larger companies.

Harrell was city council president in 2018 when lawmakers approved — and then repealed — a controversial per-employee “head tax” on big businesses. The council in 2020 later passed the “JumpStart” payroll tax, which Wilson helped craft.

Speaking to GeekWire last month, Wilson — whose platform is focused on raising more revenue “from the wealthiest corporations” — said she aims to have a working relationship with Amazon and other tech companies, calling them “very important players in our city and our economy.”

While tech dominates the Seattle economy, Wilson is interested in diversifying that focus. In a recent post on Reddit, she cautioned that a heavy reliance on the tech sector could pose problems for Seattle down the road.

“We’ve really been blithely riding the tech wave for the past 15 years and I don’t think we can just assume that will continue,” she wrote.

At the event Wednesday, Harrell also discussed public safety and the city’s new high-tech operations center designed to help officers fight crime in real time.

The Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) pulls live footage and data from surveillance cameras and other sources into a centralized command room staffed by analysts up to 20 hours a day.

Critics, including Wilson, have raised concerns about the federal government using surveillance footage to target immigrants.

Seattle Police Department Captain James Britt said earlier this year that data requests from outside agencies — including federal law enforcement — are screened and must comply with state and local laws. “We control where all of our data goes,” Britt said at a press event in July touting the RTCC.

Harrell reiterated the point on Wednesday, saying that third parties cannot obtain footage. He also noted other cities that have similar systems in place.

“We have actually caught criminals because of the technology,” he said.

Harrell last month announced a “responsible AI plan” that provides guidelines for Seattle’s use of artificial intelligence and its support of the AI tech sector as an economic driver.