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

Financial Times · Feb 26, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Group’s shares surge 25% as CEO says ‘most companies are late’ to realise how much technology will affect employment

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TechCrunchabout 4 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 5 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

The Vergeabout 5 hours ago

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

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.

Hacker Newsabout 6 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

Financial Timesabout 2 hours ago

Trump and Mamdani discuss housing and immigration in second meeting

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Financial Timesabout 4 hours ago

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

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Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block’s employee base — and he says your company is next

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

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

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

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Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block’s employee base — and he says your company is next

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

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

Layoffs at Block

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Anthropic rejects Pentagon’s ‘final offer’ for military use of its AI

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TechCrunchabout 4 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 5 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

The Vergeabout 5 hours ago
Jack Dorsey’s Block cuts nearly half of its staff in AI gamble
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.

Hacker Newsabout 6 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

Financial Timesabout 2 hours ago
Trump and Mamdani discuss housing and immigration in second meeting
Oval Office gathering signals growing partnership between democratic socialist mayor of New York and Republican president

Financial Timesabout 4 hours ago
Anthropic rejects Pentagon’s ‘final offer’ for military use of its AI
CEO Dario Amodei said start-up ‘cannot in good conscience’ agree to US government’s terms