TikTok said Wednesday it will close its Nashville office in October, laying off 250 workers.
The move is a retrenchment from the social video company’s expansion into Nashville in 2024 and comes as many tech companies are reevaluating their workforce amid the growth of artificial intelligence.
“We have decided to close our Nashville office to streamline our operations and better align our teams for long-term growth,” said TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which oversees TikTok’s U.S. operations. “We remain fully committed to providing secure, safe and positive experiences for the 200 million Americans that create, discover and connect with what they love on TikTok.”
The decision was specific to the Nashville office to bring its teams closer together, according to a TikTok USDS Joint Venture spokesperson.
TikTok‘s U.S. operator notified the State of Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development about the number of layoffs and the office closure on Wednesday. The WARN notice did not detail what roles were at the office, but some jobs were related to content moderation, according to Nashville Metro Councilmember Terry Vo.
“I’m disappointed for all the Nashvillians who are waking up to this reality,” Vo said.
TikTok did not respond to questions on what types of roles were at the Nashville office or whether artificial intelligence was a factor for the layoffs.
TikTok in 2024 signed a 143,610 square foot lease at the Moore Building in the Music Row area, having spent several million dollars to build out the space, according to the Tennessean. The lease also roughly tripled its office space in Nashville, the Tennessean reported.
The social media company has its U.S. headquarters in Culver City.
In 2024, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) expressed disapproval of the TikTok office opening in Nashville because at that time, TikTok’s parent company was Chinese tech giant ByteDance.
“When TikTok’s CEO was in Washington, I made it clear to him that Tennesseans are extremely concerned about China’s influence,” Blackburn said in a statement in 2024, adding there were concerns about how the company would handle U.S. user data and whether it would push for the Chinese government’s interests.
Since then, the U.S. government, TikTok and ByteDance came to an agreement last year to establish a separate entity called TikTok USDS Joint Venture overseeing TikTok’s operations and data protection in the U.S. that is majority American owned.
A spokesperson for Blackburn did not immediately return a request for comment on TikTok’s office closure in Nashville.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Oregon-based Enderle Group, said he expects more layoffs at other TikTok U.S. office locations due to the new ownership.
“When a new ownership takes over a company, they make adjustments to the staffing levels,” Enderle said.