Block To Cut More Than 4,000 Jobs As The Latest Tech Company To Announce Major Layoffs

Fintech institution Block said Thursday that it’s cutting much than 4,000 workers aliases astir half of its workforce arsenic artificial intelligence disrupts nan measurement group work.

The Oakland genitor institution of costs services Square and Cash App saw its banal surge by much than 23% successful after-hours trading aft making nan layoff announcement.

Jack Dorsey, nan co-founder and caput of Block, said successful a post connected societal media tract X that nan institution isn’t make nan determination because nan institution is successful financial trouble.

“We’re already seeing that nan intelligence devices we’re creating and using, paired pinch smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a caller measurement of moving which fundamentally changes what it intends to build and tally a company,” he said.

Block is nan latest tech institution to denote monolithic cuts arsenic employers push workers to usage much AI devices to do much pinch less people. Amazon successful January said it was laying disconnected 16,000 group arsenic portion of effort to region layers wrong nan company.

Block has laid disconnected workers successful erstwhile years. In 2025, Block said it planned to slash 931 jobs, aliases 8% of its workforce, citing capacity and strategical issues but Dorsey said astatine nan clip that nan institution wasn’t trying to switch workers pinch AI.

As tech companies clasp AI devices that tin code, make matter and do different tasks, worker worry astir whether their jobs will beryllium automated person heightened.

In his statement to labor Dorsey said that he was weighing whether to make cuts gradually passim months aliases years but chose to enactment immediately.

“Repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to nan spot that customers and shareholders spot successful our expertise to lead,” he told workers. “I’d alternatively return a hard, clear action now and build from a position we judge successful than negociate a slow simplification of group toward nan aforesaid outcome.”

Dorsey is besides nan co-founder of Twitter, which was later renamed to X aft billionaire Elon Musk purchased nan institution successful 2022.

As of December, Block had 10,205 full-time labor globally, according to nan company’s yearly report. The institution said it plans to trim its workforce by nan extremity of nan 2nd 4th of fiscal twelvemonth 2026.

The company’s gross profit successful 2025 reached much than $10 billion, up 17% compared to nan erstwhile year.

Dorsey said he plans to reside labor successful a unrecorded video convention and noted that their emails and Slack will stay unfastened until Thursday evening truthful they tin opportunity goodbye to colleagues.

“I cognize doing it this measurement mightiness consciousness awkward,” he said. “I’d alternatively it consciousness awkward and quality than businesslike and cold.”