Jack Dorsey’s Block cuts nearly half of its staff in AI gamble

The Verge · Feb 26, 2026 · Collected from RSS

Summary

Jack Dorsey's Block, the financial tech company that runs Square and the Cash app, is cutting its workforce by "nearly half" and axing more than 4,000 jobs. The company will shrink from more than 10,000 people to less than 6,000, Dorsey says in a post on X. And the reason why? AI. "We're not making this decision because we're in trouble," Dorsey says. "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. We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new … Read the full story at The Verge.

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Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.Jack Dorsey’s Block, the financial tech company that runs Square and the Cash app, is cutting its workforce by “nearly half” and axing more than 4,000 jobs. The company will shrink from more than 10,000 people to less than 6,000, Dorsey says in a post on X. And the reason why? AI.“We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble,” Dorsey says. “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. 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.”Dorsey opted to do a big layoff instead of gradual cuts because “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.”The layoffs were announced on Thursday as part of the company’s Q4 2025 earnings. In a shareholder letter, Dorsey says that “We believe Block will be significantly more valuable as a smaller, faster, intelligence-native company. Everything we do from here is in service of that.”Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jay Peters

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Financial Timesabout 4 hours ago

Jack Dorsey’s Block to cut workforce by ‘nearly half’ as it leans on AI tools

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TechCrunchabout 5 hours ago

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Engadgetabout 6 hours ago

Block, the parent of Square and Cash App, is laying off over 4,000 people

Block is the latest business to announce layoffs, with the operator of payment platforms Square and Cash App opting to cut jobs in favor of using more AI tools. The financial tech company, helmed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is slashing its current staff of 10,000 to "just under 6,000." CNBC highlighted a letter Block sent to shareholders announcing the decision to nearly halve its workforce. According to the message from Dorsey: "The core thesis is simple. 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." We learned last year that Block had developed an AI agent called "codename goose" for interacting with LLMs. Leadership is clearly putting high expectations on that project and any other in-house tools to fill the shoes of thousands. "intelligence will be at the core of how the entire company works. How we make decisions, how we build trust and manage risk, how we build products, and how we serve customers," the shareholder letter states. Block also reported its latest financial results today. It finished the 2025 financial year with operating income (profit after expenses) of $1.71 billion. This isn't the first time the fintech company has made deep cuts in its employee count. Layoffs numbering about 1,000 were rumored both in 2024 and 2025. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/block-the-parent-of-square-and-cash-app-is-laying-off-over-4000-people-223343068.html?src=rss

Hacker Newsabout 7 hours ago

Layoffs at Block

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/26/block-laying-off-about-4000-... https://www.marketwatch.com/story/block-plans-to-lay-off-nea... Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47172119 Points: 23 # Comments: 9

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Jack Dorsey’s Block cuts nearly half of its staff in AI gamble

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Financial Timesabout 4 hours ago
Jack Dorsey’s Block to cut workforce by ‘nearly half’ as it leans on AI tools
Group’s shares surge 25% as CEO says ‘most companies are late’ to realise how much technology will affect employment

TechCrunchabout 5 hours ago
Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block’s employee base — and he says your company is next
Jack Dorsey has long been an open admirer of Elon Musk. Now, it seems, he may have been taking notes.

Engadgetabout 6 hours ago
Block, the parent of Square and Cash App, is laying off over 4,000 people
Block is the latest business to announce layoffs, with the operator of payment platforms Square and Cash App opting to cut jobs in favor of using more AI tools. The financial tech company, helmed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is slashing its current staff of 10,000 to "just under 6,000." CNBC highlighted a letter Block sent to shareholders announcing the decision to nearly halve its workforce. According to the message from Dorsey: "The core thesis is simple. 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." We learned last year that Block had developed an AI agent called "codename goose" for interacting with LLMs. Leadership is clearly putting high expectations on that project and any other in-house tools to fill the shoes of thousands. "intelligence will be at the core of how the entire company works. How we make decisions, how we build trust and manage risk, how we build products, and how we serve customers," the shareholder letter states. Block also reported its latest financial results today. It finished the 2025 financial year with operating income (profit after expenses) of $1.71 billion. This isn't the first time the fintech company has made deep cuts in its employee count. Layoffs numbering about 1,000 were rumored both in 2024 and 2025. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/block-the-parent-of-square-and-cash-app-is-laying-off-over-4000-people-223343068.html?src=rss

Hacker Newsabout 7 hours ago
Layoffs at Block
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/26/block-laying-off-about-4000-... https://www.marketwatch.com/story/block-plans-to-lay-off-nea... Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47172119 Points: 23 # Comments: 9

The Vergeabout 5 hours ago
Anthropic refuses Pentagon’s new terms, standing firm on lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance
Less than 24 hours before the deadline in an ultimatum issued by the Pentagon, Anthropic has refused the Department of Defense's demands for unrestricted access to its AI. It's the culmination of a dramatic exchange of public statements, social media posts, and behind-the-scenes negotiations, coming down to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's desire to renegotiate all AI labs' current contracts with the military. But Anthropic, so far, has refused to back down from its two current red lines: no mass surveillance of Americans, and no lethal autonomous weapons (or weapons with license to kill targets with no human oversight whatsoever). OpenAI … Read the full story at The Verge.

The Vergeabout 5 hours ago
Netflix walks away from its deal to buy Warner Bros. after Paramount came back with a better offer
Netflix has dropped its $83 billion deal to acquire the Warner Bros. studio, HBO, and its streaming service HBO Max. In an announcement on Thursday, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters say the streamer is "declining to match" the new bid made by Paramount: The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we've always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid. We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.' i … Read the full story at The Verge.