Sammie Ellard-King
I’m Sammie, a money expert and business owner passionate about helping you take control of your wallet. My mission with Up the Gains is to create a safe space to help improve your finances, cut your costs and make you feel good while doing it.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey says his technology firm Block is laying off almost half its workforce because artificial intelligence (AI) “fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company.”
The layoffs will mean headcount at the company – which owns Square, CashApp, Afterpay, TIDAL and Bitkey – will fall to less than 6,000 from 10,000.
That’s over 4,000 jobs gone.
we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company.
— jack (@jack) February 26, 2026
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today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are…
Why Is Block Cutting So Many Jobs?
In a letter to shareholders, Dorsey explained: “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.”
“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,” Dorsey said in a lengthy post on X.
Block has seen several rounds of layoffs since 2024, but this is the first time it has cited AI as the reason for redundancies.
More news:
AI Replacing Highly Trained Workers
Most tech companies today are using AI tools that automatically write the computer code required to operate software or websites, like Claude Code from Anthropic or Codex from OpenAI.
Such automation of what has for decades been work done by highly trained people has led to fears that AI will overturn the job market.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder and chief executive, said he expects “2026 to be the year that AI dramatically changes the way we work.”
“We’re starting to see projects that used to take big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person,” Zuckerberg said.
Other Tech Companies Following Suit
Block marks the latest in a series of major job cuts in the tech industry.
At the end of January, Amazon laid off 16,000 employees, having already cut 14,000 roles a few months earlier.
In a call discussing financial results, Amazon’s chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said the company was looking at cost reductions as it ramps up AI spending.
Meta, Microsoft and Google have also laid off workers as their focus has shifted to huge investments in AI.
"Most Companies Are Late"
According to Dorsey, only more change related to AI capabilities is on the way.
“Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes,” he wrote.
“I don’t think we’re early to this realisation,” he said Thursday. “I think most companies are late.”
Is Block Actually Struggling?
No. Block’s financial report showed strong demand for its products and services, pushing up profits at the end of last year.
The firm said it will incur up to $500m (£370m) in restructuring costs as it pivots to the new strategy.
Its shares rose by more than 20% in extended trading after the announcement.
So this isn’t a struggling company cutting jobs to survive. It’s a profitable company cutting jobs because AI can do the work cheaper.
Are Analysts Convinced?
Some analysts have suggested the immediate threat to jobs has been exaggerated by executives who want to appear ahead of the curve.
The question is whether AI tools really can replace thousands of skilled workers, or whether tech CEOs are using AI as cover for cost-cutting they wanted to do anyway.
Either way, the impact on the 4,000 people losing their jobs at Block is very real.
What This Means for Other Workers
If Dorsey is right that “most companies will reach the same conclusion” within a year, this could be the start of mass layoffs across multiple industries.
AI tools that can write code, analyse data, and automate tasks previously done by humans are becoming more powerful and cheaper to use.
The promise of AI has always been that it would free humans from repetitive work. The fear is that it will simply eliminate jobs without creating new ones to replace them.
For now, tech workers at Block are finding out the hard way what happens when a CEO decides AI can do their job.
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