Meta to lay off 1,400 employees in Washington
What's the story
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is all set to lay off nearly 1,400 employees across Washington state. The layoffs will mainly affect technical roles and are part of a larger restructuring effort focused on artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. The company has filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) with the Washington State Employment Security Department detailing its plans.
Impact assessment
Layoffs will be concentrated in Bellevue
The city of Bellevue will be hit the hardest by these layoffs, with nearly 699 workers set to lose their jobs. The WARN notice also states that two Seattle offices will lay off 259 employees in total. Redmond will see a cut of 206 workers while another 231 remote employees across the state are also affected by this decision.
Role impact
Affected roles include software engineers, data scientists
Software engineers, data scientists, content designers and IT staff are among those likely to be affected by the latest round of layoffs at Meta. A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement shared with FOX Business that "The changes we are implementing vary by team and include layoffs, open role closures and moving thousands of employees to business critical priorities across the company."
Severance details
Severance packages for affected workers
Meta has informed its employees about the layoffs, effective from July 22. The affected workers will receive severance packages comprising 16 weeks of base pay, plus an additional two weeks for every year of continuous service. The company had earlier announced plans to cut nearly 10% of its staff while reallocating thousands of roles toward AI-related projects.
Financial commitment
AI investments skyrocketing at Meta
Meta has emerged as one of the biggest investors in artificial intelligence (AI) in Silicon Valley. The company is spending billions of dollars on data centers, powerful AI chips, and new AI tools to stay competitive with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. During an earnings call in April, Meta said it expects to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on AI investments this year—around $10 billion more than its previous estimate for 2026.