What companies are rolling back DEI policies in 2025?

Amazon

In a memo sent to Amazon employees — obtained by CNBC — Candi Castleberry, senior HR executive, revealed that Amazon was winding down DEI policies after investigating how effective these initiatives had been. Castleberry's memo does not specify the programs and initiatives being withdrawn, but the company's language and positioning have changed.

In 2020, Amazon pledged to double the number of Black employees in senior roles. Since then, the company has also set a goal to employ 30% more Black employees in product management and other corporate positions. After the memo from Castleberry, Amazon cut back their DEI language on their website.

Google

Google is one of the most recent companies to announce rollbacks, with parent company Alphabet removing references to DEI from its annual report, including, "We are committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve."

In an internal memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Fiona Cicconi, Alphabet's chief people officer, told employees, "Because we are a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes to our programs required to comply with recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders on this topic," Cicconi goes on to say that "in the future, we will no longer have aspirational goals."

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, Google set five-year goals, including to "improve leadership representation of underrepresented groups by 30 percent."

McDonald's

On Jan. 6, 2025, McDonald's released a statement to company employees, suppliers and operators summarizing their 2024 success and changes for 2025. These changes include the following:

• Ceasing their set representation goals.
• Pausing external surveys to focus on the work they are doing internally.
• Retiring supply chain's mutual commitment to DEI pledge "in favor of a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion as it relates to business performance."
• Renaming their diversity team their "global inclusion team."

McDonald's is focusing on changing its language and stating that "inclusion" is one of its core values.

Meta

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is one of the largest tech giants that has publicly announced DEI rollbacks. These changes include the following:

• The removal of Meta's internal team focused on DEI.
• No longer committed to sourcing business suppliers from diverse and minority-owned businesses.
• No longer commit to diverse hiring and training for existing employees.

Janelle Gale, the company's vice president of human resources, announced in a memo obtained by Axios that these changes to DEI have come about because the "legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing."

This announcement came just three days after scaling back its efforts to fact-check and monitor speech across Instagram, Facebook and Threads.

Target

In 2020, the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis -- the company's headquarters -- was a driving factor in the ramping up of Target's DEI policies. In 2020, while large companies were facing growing pressure from the public to address social inequalities, Target announced its goal to increase the representation of Black employees by 20%. Target is now the most recent in a list of organizations choosing rollback diversity initiatives.

In a memo sent to staff, the company stated they would end their "three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals" and stop all "external diversity-focused surveys." The statement highlighted a few key changes, including the following:

• No longer a focus on stocking products from minority-owned companies.
• End diversity reporting for external groups such as the Human Rights Campaign.
• End of their Racial Equity Action and Change initiative.

The memo states that these changes are to keep up with the "evolving external landscape."

Walmart

Walmart -- the nation's largest private employer -- revealed in November 2024 that they would cease several of their DEI initiatives, including the following:

• Funding to celebrate Pride month.
• Racial equity training programs.
• Providing data to the Human Rights Campaign.

Walmart is also moving away from the term "DEI" and replacing it with "belonging," as it was first announced by political activist Robby Starbuck on X and confirmed by Walmart to several media outlets, including the Associated Press and ABC News. The company has also changed the title of its chief diversity officer to chief belonging officer.

Which companies are continuing to support DEI initiatives?

Though many organizations are scaling back their DEI policies, several companies have publicly supported DEI and say they will continue to defend their initiatives. For example, in mid-January, Costco's shareholders -- with backing from board directors -- voted against a proposal to evaluate the risk and effectiveness of DEI measures.

Apple's shareholders also voted against a similar proposal. The company rejected the proposal and responded that "we strive to create a culture of belonging where everyone can do their best work."

Microsoft also drove home its commitment to DEI. The company's chief diversity officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, posted on LinkedIn, "For Microsoft, transparency and accountability are not a trend or a season."

Meanwhile, when Peter Carter, Delta's chief legal officer, was asked during the airline's 4th quarter earnings call if the company would follow suit and examine their positioning on diversity, Carter responded, "No, we are not. We are steadfast in our commitments because we think that they're critical to our business."

Jim Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, also reaffirmed the company will not back down on their DEI policies and stated in an interview with CNBC that the company will "continue to reach out to the Black community and Hispanic community, LGBT community, and the veteran community."

Rosa Heaton is a content manager for the Learning Content group at Informa TechTarget.