Block Cuts 4,000 Jobs as AI Takes Over Roles

AI + ML 4 Jack Dorsey’s fintech outfit Block announces 40% layoffs, blames AI, gets 23% stock bump 4 One massive round of firings is apparently better for morale than a drip-drip-drip of death Simon Sharwood Fri 27 Feb 2026 // 00:33 UTC Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s financial services company Block has announced it will fire 40 percent of staff – around 4,000 people – because new "intelligence tools" the company is implementing “can do more and do it better.” The company announced the sackings in the shareholder letter [PDF] accompanying its Q4 earnings announcement on Thursday. The payments and crypto company reported quarterly revenue of about $6.25 billion – up 3.6 percent year-over-year – and gross profit of around $2.9 billion. The company made $1 billion of gross profit in December 2025 alone. Full-year revenue came in at about $24.2 billion, and gross profit was around $10.36 billion. I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar changes “2025 was a strong year for us,” Dorsey wrote in the shareholder letter, before posing the question, “Why are we changing how we operate going forward?” His answer, spread across the letter and a Xeet , is that AI has already changed the way Block works, so it needs to change its structure. “We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly,” he wrote on X. In the shareholder letter, he wrote, “Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. We're already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we're building, can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every week.” On X, Dorsey said he could have cut jobs “gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now.” Jack Dorsey floats specs for decentralized messaging app that uses Bluetooth Block accused of mass compliance failures that saw digi-dollars reach terrorists Block sued after ex-staffer siphons customer data Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey rebrands himself a 'single point of failure' and quits He decided to let 4,000 people go all at once because “repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead.” “I’d rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome,” he wrote, adding his view that “A smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures.” Whether Dorsey is blaming AI or not, Block has not served its shareholders well under his leadership over the last five years, with its stock down around 80% from its 2021 peak. But investors liked what they heard on Thursday, as Block’s share price jumped about 23 percent in after-hours trading. “To those staying … I made this decision, and I'll own it,” Dorsey wrote on X. “What I'm asking of you is to build with me. We're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do.” He added that Block’s actions and new direction will help its customers to navigate change by creating “a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces.” “That's what I'm focused on now,” he wrote. “Expect a note from me tomorrow.” Before then, Dorsey will host “a live video session to thank everyone,” including the approximately 4,000 people losing their livelihoods in a sluggish economy . “I know doing it this way might feel awkward,” he wrote. “I'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold.” Because firing 4,000 people so machines can take their jobs would never come across as cold. Dorsey thinks Block won’t be the last company to change its operations to meet the AI moment. “I don't think we're early to this realization,” he wrote. “I think most companies are late.” “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. I'd rather get there honestly and on our own terms than be forced into it reactively.” ® Get our Tech Resources Share More about AI Jack Dorsey Layoff More like these × More about AI Jack Dorsey Layoff Tech Jobs Narrower topics AIOps DeepSeek Gemini Google AI GPT-3 GPT-4 Large Language Model Machine Learning MCubed Neural Networks NLP Retrieval Augmented Generation Star Wars Tensor Processing Unit TOPS Broader topics Employment Self-driving Car More about Share 4 COMMENTS More about AI Jack Dorsey Layoff More like these × More about AI Jack Dorsey Layoff Tech Jobs Narrower topics AIOps DeepSeek Gemini Google AI GPT-3 GPT-4