The CEO of Block, Jack Dorsey, announced the cull on X, saying that technological change was the reason for cutting around 4,000 staff.
“Today we’re making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we’re reducing our organisation by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. That means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. I’ll be straight about what’s happening, why, and what it means for everyone,” he said.
While the company does have offices in Australia, the termination seems to focus on US-based staff, with only some international workers impacted. However, the post did not make this clear.
While Dorsey did not specify that AI was the technology responsible, he cited “intelligence tools” and “a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company”.
Dorsey admitted this was not due to any financial strain on the business. In fact, Block had grown 24 per cent with an annual profit of $24 billion.
“We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble. Our business is strong. Gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. But something has changed,” he said, before discussing technological and intelligence advancements,” he said.
“I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. I chose the latter. 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. 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.”
As news of massive job cuts usually does, other X users slammed Dorsey for the news.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!??? And the stock price is up +25 per cent with this news,” said one user.
“The markets are now celebrating layoffs as a positive sign, as if human employees are liabilities for companies.”
Another user asked Grok to cut the ambiguity of the post and “remove the corporate jargon”, to which it responded: “We’re slashing the company from 10k to under 6k people because AI plus tiny teams now let us do the same work with way fewer bodies, and the CEO would rather gut half the staff in one brutal move than bleed out slowly over years.”
Analyst Aakash Gupta warned that this was part of a growing trend that would prove only more damaging in the future.
“Every one of these companies was growing when they did it,” analyst Aakash Gupta said on X.
“Dorsey said the quiet part out loud: intelligence tools paired with smaller teams have already changed what it means to run a company. He chose one massive cut over repeated rounds because, his words, gradual cuts destroy morale and trust. The restructuring charges are $450-500 million.
“At the operating income Block is guiding, that pays for itself in two-quarters. After that, pure margin expansion. That’s why Wall Street rewarded it instantly.
“Here’s what’s coming. Goldman estimates AI is already responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 net monthly job losses in exposed US industries. Citigroup is planning 20,000 cuts. Dow just slashed 4,500. Forty per cent of employers surveyed say they expect to reduce headcount because of AI. 30,700 tech jobs gone in the first six weeks of 2026 alone.”
Daniel Croft