Payments firm Stripe and rideshare company Lyft, two darlings of Silicon Valley, announced major layoffs Thursday as the economy continues to darken for U.S. tech heavyweights.

The tough economic times are also hitting Amazon.com, which announced that it would freeze new corporate hires amid a highly uncertain economic environment.

Fear and dread spread across Twitter offices on Thursday as 7,500 employees feared job cuts that were planned to hit about half of the staff, according to current and former employees and message board posts shared with Reuters.

Stripe, a payments company based in San Francisco and Dublin, said it was going to slash 14 percent of its staff, telling them it had "over-hired for the world we're in."

The company said this would return its headcount to the 7,000 it had in February.

"We are facing stubborn inflation, energy shocks, higher interest rates, reduced investment budgets and sparser startup funding," Stripe CEO Patrick Collison wrote in a note to staff.

The U.S. Federal Reserve ordered another steep boost in interest rates this week, fueling recession jitters.

Lyft said it was letting go 13 percent or 683 non-driver employees. It cited a likely U.S. recession and the rise in insurance costs for drivers.

The wave of layoffs comes just after a downbeat earnings season for most tech giants, with Facebook-owner Meta seeing its share price plummet by 73 percent this year to its lowest level since 2015.

"Amazon's hiring freeze sends a clear and unfortunate signal that the mood music of the retail and consumer economy is shifting," said GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders.

"The heady days of growth have now ended and have given away to an environment in which more caution is necessary to protect the bottom line," he added.

(With inputs from AFP, Reuters)