Meta cuts 1,395 Washington jobs amid AI investment push

Washington layoffs

Meta is cutting 1,395 jobs in Washington state, according to a notice filed with the Washington state Employment Security Department. The reductions represent about 20% of the company’s local workforce and are scheduled to take effect July 22.

The filing covers teams across Meta, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, advertising and infrastructure. A company spokesperson said Meta had roughly 7,000 employees in the Seattle region before the cuts.

Bellevue’s Spring District office is set to lose about 699 employees, making it the largest affected location listed in the filing. The notice also identifies about 215 cuts at Meta’s Dexter Avenue office in Seattle, 206 at its Redmond facility, 44 at a second Seattle office on Utah Avenue, and about 231 remote workers based in the state.

Companywide changes

The Washington reductions are part of a broader companywide effort that is eliminating about 8,000 positions, according to the GeekWire report. Meta disclosed the wider cuts in an internal memo in April, describing an effort to operate more efficiently while offsetting heavy investment in AI infrastructure.

A Meta spokesperson said the changes differ by team and include layoffs, closures of open roles, and moving thousands of employees to business-critical priorities. The company plans to spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditures this year.

The information in the source packet links the Washington job cuts to Meta’s broader AI push, but also describes operational streamlining and changes in workforce priorities. That means the announced reductions are presented as part of both AI-related investment and wider restructuring, rather than being attributed only to AI.

Earlier reductions

This is the latest reported round of job cuts affecting Meta’s Washington workforce this year. In January and March, the company eliminated roles affecting a total of nearly 500 workers in the state, with Reality Labs particularly affected.

A separate source in the packet describes another wave involving several hundred employees across divisions including Facebook and Reality Labs. It says Meta is shifting resources toward artificial intelligence while pulling back from its metaverse effort. That source refers to about 700 people at Facebook and Reality Labs, but does not establish that those cuts are the same as the 1,395 Washington jobs listed in the state filing.

The sources therefore describe multiple rounds of reductions and restructuring at Meta. The Washington notice provides the detailed location-by-location breakdown for 1,395 jobs, while the separate report characterises a wider reshaping of teams and resources around artificial intelligence.

Sources

• Meta cuts nearly 1,400 jobs in Seattle area, 20% of local workforce, in sweeping AI revamp – GeekWire
• Meta Lays Off Hundreds More Workers As Mark Zuckerberg Pivots Away From – Mosquera