Samsung Layoffs Impact Over 60% of New Jersey Staff as HQ Moves to Texas: 739 Roles Affected

Samsung Electronics has cut hundreds of jobs across its US consumer electronics business as it prepares to move its American headquarters from New Jersey to Texas, unsettling a workforce that had moved into new offices less than a year ago.

Samsung confirmed that 739 roles at Samsung Electronics America's (SEA) office in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, were affected, a figure also listed in a state WARN notice. Most of those staff were offered the chance to relocate to Texas, and the rest were laid off. The company did not say how many people lost their jobs.

SEA handles US sales and marketing for Samsung's smartphones, televisions, displays, and home appliances, and does not include the semiconductor division behind the company's record profits. It employs about 1,200 people in New Jersey, according to the office of US Representative Josh Gottheimer, who attended the opening of the Englewood Cliffs building last September. The 739 roles cover more than 60% of that workforce, barely 10 months after the site opened.

Reuters, which first reported the layoffs, said about 100 workers at SEA's Plano, Texas office, including staff in the mobile division, were let go, citing one laid-off employee, and that more than 30 others across several US locations had announced departures on LinkedIn. Internal documents seen by the agency showed the unit told staff on 30 June of an 'enterprise-wide reduction-in-force' carrying a 'significant number of impacts.'

Inside Samsung's Move From New Jersey to Texas

Samsung said the relocation was meant to foster 'stronger collaboration and optimize the organization,' and that no broad global restructuring was underway in its consumer products business. The move is due to complete by the end of the year, with the headquarters shifting to Plano, where Samsung already runs a mobile hub and sits near its chip factories in the state.

Texas has drawn a run of large employers. Samsung follows Tesla, Oracle, and other firms in moving headquarters or major operations to the state, which offers lower taxes and lighter regulation. Its semiconductor plant in Taylor, near Austin, secured funding under the US CHIPS Act, part of a footprint that now stretches across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Samsung employed 11,770 people across the United States at the end of 2025, its filings show.

A separate change added to the upheaval. Samsung SDS America, the group's IT services affiliate, flagged that 179 roles could go at Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, in a June notice required under state law. Samsung said those moves stemmed from the relocation of Samsung SDS's North American headquarters and were unrelated to layoffs or restructuring.

Record Chip Profits Behind Samsung's US Job Cuts

The job losses sit against a business pulling in two directions. Samsung's memory chip arm is booming on demand for the high-bandwidth memory that powers artificial intelligence systems, while the consumer side behind the cuts faces slower sales, higher costs, and stiffer competition.

In preliminary guidance on 7 July, Samsung estimated second-quarter operating profit of about 89.4 trillion won ($58.4B, £44.0B), a 19-fold rise on a year earlier and its largest quarterly operating profit on record. Revenue was set to climb about 129% to 171 trillion won, a third straight record quarter. Full results are due on 30 July. Even so, Samsung shares closed nearly 7% lower on the day of the guidance, as investors weighed heavy AI spending and the staying power of memory demand.

The mobile division has not shared the spoils. Analysts expect the phone business to post a loss for the quarter, squeezed by Apple at the top of the market and by the same rising memory prices Samsung's own chip unit is charging its customers.

The cuts echo a wider pattern in technology, where Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta have trimmed staff while pouring money into AI. For SEA's New Jersey employees, the immediate choice is starker: move to Texas or look for new work. A current employee said staff feared further cuts and a possible merger of the appliance, home entertainment, and mobile divisions as resources tilt toward chips.