U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon announced on Friday its plans to start making deliveries via drones in the U.S. states of California and Texas amid a slowdown in its office expansion in favor of a hybrid work trend.

The company announced last month that it will offer drone deliveries to customers living in Lockeford, California, and the service will now be extended to College Station, Texas.

The company said it partnered with Texas A&M University in College Station, which will be "at the forefront of the development of drone delivery technology," College Station Mayor Karl Mooney said in a statement.

Amazon said its drones are capable of delivering packages up to 5 pounds (2.27 kilograms) in less than an hour.

They can fly at a maximum speed of 50 mph (80.5 kph) and a maximum altitude of 400 feet (122 meters).

Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc. is pausing the construction of six new office buildings in northwest Washington state's Bellevue and southern state Tennesee's Nashville to reevaluate the designs to suit hybrid work, the tech giant said on Friday.

The pausing and delay of construction will not affect Amazon's hiring plans, a company spokesperson said, reiterating the firm's proposal to create 25,000 jobs in Bellevue and another 5,000 in Nashville.

"The pandemic has significantly changed the way people work ... Our offices are long-term investments and we want to make sure that we design them in a way that meets our employees' needs in the future," said John Schoettler, vice president of Global Real Estate and Facilities at Amazon.

Separately, Bloomberg News reported on Friday that Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Amazon have pulled back on their office expansion plans in New York City.

Meta has decided not to take an additional 300,000 square feet of space at 770 Broadway, a building near Astor Place where it is already located and Amazon has cut down the amount of space it intended to lease from JPMorgan Chase & Co at Hudson Yards, the report said.

"There are often a number of reasons why we wouldn't proceed with a particular deal, including office utilization. The past few years have brought new possibilities around the ways we connect and work," a Meta spokesperson told Reuters without confirming or denying the report.

"We remain firmly committed to New York and look forward to opening the Farley in the coming months," the spokesperson added.

Amazon declined to comment on the report.