Amazon Pauses Work on 2nd Headquarters in Virginia

When Amazon said in 2018 that it planned to build a second headquarters in Virginia, along with a sister office complex in New York, it was a symbolic moment for the tech industry’s increasing importance to the American economy.

But the company’s decision made public on Friday to pause plans in Virginia — about four years after Amazon pulled out of its campus in New York — is the latest reminder that the tech industry’s long boom has slowed.

It is also another indication that the pandemic may have permanently changed office work, presenting new challenges to communities that had counted on the growth of tech offices.

The decision to delay a large part of the prominent construction project, which it called HQ2, came as Amazon and other big tech employers have made the most significant cuts to their work forces in at least 15 years.