Discussion

• @stardustbluepr.com @stardustbluepr.com on bluesky

  “Block (XYZ.N), on Thursday said it will cut over 4,000 jobs, nearly half its workforce, as part of an overhaul to embed artificial intelligence across its operations, sending shares of the payments firm up 25% in after-hours trading.”

• r/worldnews r on reddit

  Jack Dorsey's Block Slashes Nearly Half Its Staff in AI Bet

• @pamspaulding Pam Spaulding on bluesky

  🚮 Dorsey, dealing out the warm fuzzies to dumped staff...in favor of AI.  —  “I know doing it this way might feel awkward.  I'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient & cold.”  — Jack Dorsey, of Block (owns CashApp), axing 4,000 to be “honest about where we are & act on …

• @jack @jack on x

  we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company. #### 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

• @jack @jack on x

  yes we over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures (square & cash app) rather than 1, which we corrected mid 2024. but this misses all the complexity we took on through lending, banking, and BNPL. and that we're now targeting $2M+ gross

• @bulltheoryio @bulltheoryio on x

  This is CRAZY. It turns out Jack Dorsey's Block $XYZ spent $68 million on a single party in September 2025, roughly the annual payroll for 200 employees at $340,000 each. Then 5 months later, he laid off 4,000 people (40% of the company's workforce), citing AI and “intelligence […

• @marcelolima Marcelo P. Lima on x

  Block $XYZ 40% RIF is the new Citrini fake narrative. Everyone will assume Jack Dorsey “greatest of all time” is doing this because of AI. He's not. Block has been massively bloated for years. Don't forget, Jack was head of Twitter. When Elon took over, he fired 80% of staff

• @dee_bosa Deirdre Bosa on x

  This is a profitable, growing company cutting nearly half its workforce. If @jack executes well post-cut, this becomes a template. 3 days ago everyone was calling the Citrini piece “science fiction”... now its hitting a little closer to home

• @beffjezos @beffjezos on x

  Jevon's paradox: if it's cheaper to create a high-value company, there will be more companies The work we do as a civilization will expand to fill the available capacity for work. There is no limit to the upside we can capture. None of this is a finite zero-sum game.

• @gergelyorosz Gergely Orosz on x

  Hard to read too much into the massive (40%) Block layoffs in its rationale or not, because Jack Dorsey has always been very unpredictable on how he ran his companies. But it's true that in uncertain times, CEOs look for certainty, and someone acting confident is often copied.

• @jonchu @jonchu on x

  Lol, wow. Everyone figured out the misdirection and what's actually going on here faster than I thought they would. And no I won't be responding to comments on this one. IKYKY

• @michellerempel Michelle Rempel Garner on x

  Canada isn't ready for this.

• @packym Packy McCormick on x

  this is important in a lot of ways that people have already tweeted about, but imagine being let go in lowercase

• @ojassharma276 Ojas Sharma on x

  @jack @blocks Insane how this layoff news made the stock rise by 24%. I hope this does not become a trend in future. [image]

• @austen Austen Allred on x

  It is pretty wild that a company like Block (with >$1B in annual net income) will cut 40% of its staff, probably almost double its net income as a result, and everybody can kind of acknowledge there won't be any material deterioration of the product as a result

• @growing_daniel Daniel on x

  What we've really learned from the last five years is that Jack Dorsey runs extremely bloated companies

• @blknoiz06 @blknoiz06 on x

  > AI renders 40% of white collar jobs useless as companies become more efficient > immediate influx of talented unemployed engineers > innovation in crypto increases meaningfully as ppl realize blockchains are best place for both speculative capital and for agentic payments

• @clarashih Clara Shih on x

  Square is just the beginning. Every CEO faces the same decision today that manufacturing CEOs did in 2000: do a big layoff or your competitor will, pass on cost savings to customers and investors, and beat you. In 2000, jobs were lost to Shenzhen. In 2026, jobs will be lost to

• @growing_daniel Daniel on x

  People at docusign gotta be terrified rn

• @melissa @melissa on x

  this is the part that jack wrote you can tell because it's got the curly quote and the rest has straight ones the whole post is well done, he has a comms person who is a highly skilled prompter but jack added this part before hitting post and i like that about jack [image]

• @balajis Balaji on x

  @MarceloLima This point by @FinnMurphy12 also has truth to it: even the possibility of mass layoffs due to AI may break what remains of the American social contract, which was already hanging by a thread. Recall that the US left hates tech for being white male capitalists. And mu…

• @netcapgirl Sophie on x

  and yet docusign still has 800,000 employees

• @jseyff James Seyffart on x

  Not gonna lie. This is honestly somewhat terrifying to read

• @jason @jason on x

  @Freedom2Fart ... Few companies will need to do something this drastic, but in some cases they will. This is the future of the economy in the age of AI, we're all going to have to accept it, be resilient and self-reliant Predict 1,000 amazing starts will be started by these team …

• @marcelolima Marcelo P. Lima on x

  I emailed Block $XYZ's management nearly two years ago (after a series of other emails exhorting them to improve margins). My optimistic 2026 case is *close* to what they are guiding to this year. Crazy that it took a 40% RIF but it was well known they were bloated. [image]

• @balajis Balaji on x

  @MarceloLima I flip back and forth on this. On the one hand, the short-term disruption is often overhyped. And the post 2022 tech hiring slowdown was due to rate hikes, not AI. On the other hand, truly end-to-end driverless cars actually are here and outcompeting human-driven car…

• @jason @jason on x

  Leadership is hard, but @jack is an exceptional leader — and this is being done as well and humanly as anything this difficult can be. I've been a private shareholder in the company since the early days, and have never sold a share — and never plan to, as long as Jack is

• @briannorgard Norgard on x

  The three things that are about to happen in public markets: 1. AI will lead to a dramatic downsizing of headcount 2. Stock prices will go up 3. Everyone will point the finger at everyone else (politicians will get involved too late)

• @balajis Balaji on x

  There are counterarguments worth engaging. One point (also by @MarceloLima) is that Block was overstaffed, like Twitter before the acquisition. Possibly true. But it's also true that the new tools mean many orgs think they can do more with less. Some will run the experiment.

• @birdyword Mike Bird on x

  It's been a rough time to be a fintech, but I'm not sure you can look at this and say Block's been doing very well as a business [image]

• @pinboard @pinboard on x

  @jack @blocks At least capitalize your sentences when you're firing half your staff.

• @delrey Jason Del Rey on x

  Man, I covered Square and Jack for a long time... Quick thoughts: Jack would be one of my first guesses as a ceo who would do this Same goes for severance packages of that size Like many tho, skeptical of how much is truly ai-related vs bloat emanating from creation of Block

• @emollick Ethan Mollick on x

  Two things: 1) Given that effective AI tools are very new, and we have little sense of how to organize work around them, it is hard to imagine a firm-wide sudden 50% efficiency gain 2) CEOs with vision who hired well should also use AI for expansion & augmentation, not decimation

• @trungtphan Trung Phan on x

  Citrini Research after getting cooked non-stop for 3 days for saying mass white-collar unemployment was coming becaue your grandma could vibe code Doordash or Visa replacements seeing Block lay off 40% of its 10,000 person team: [video]

• @davidmarcus David Marcus on x

  A class act in a tough act. h/t @jack

• @torabyou @torabyou on x

  Any serious founder is spending every waking minute thinking about this and its ramifications It remains to be seen how this will impact the economy short term, but I don't see it being good for the economy and for markets overall. I'm an irrational optimist, but short terms

• @can @can on x

  was just telling a candidate today that ive once survived a layoff by being on a visa. it's awful. we are hiring and my DMs are open for roles in NYC and SF or just chats.

• @dgt10011 Jeff Park on x

  The only way this ends well is if the same AI that's taking everyone else's job takes the Fed Chair's too That job shall be called Bitcoin

• @thestoicemperor @thestoicemperor on x

  Using Gen Z lowercase to mass fire gently. [image]

• @cryptohayes Arthur Hayes on x

  40% gonzo. I wonder what the average salary was of those let go, or how much consumer debt they carry.

• @jordihays Jordi Hays on x

  The largest workforce reduction as a share of total employees in S&P 500 history btw

• @qwqiao @qwqiao on x

  i said to an ex-googler last month that thx to ai bigtech can double their margins overnight by firing 80% of the staff and still function well. his response: even before ai they could fire 80% and still function well. i nodded in agreement.

• @shaunmmaguire Shaun Maguire on x

  Respect to @jack for doing the hard thing While doing it intentionally and owning the decision

• @film_girl Christina Warren on x

  hey guess what: when 4000 people have lost their jobs, it isn't the time for your ai-written bullet list about how ai has “changed” the game and to push your own bullshit “you need these ai skills/openclaw” grift — save that garbage for the linkedin!

• @dittycheria Dev Ittycheria on x

  Wow. This is an aggressive move. Layoffs totally suck, and I feel for everyone affected. I do respect the effort to avoid making continual cuts year over year and instead make one deep cut and be done. This tells everyone left in the co that you don't need to look over your

• @balajis Balaji on x

  This is the first AI cut. And it will send shockwaves. Remember: Jack is one of the greatest founders of all time. He created this platform that we're all on, and has been early to many technological shifts. And Block was doing very well as a business. So, for him to cut 40% of

• @brianrumao Brian Rumao on x

  X cut its headcount by 80%, Block is reducing headcount by almost 50%. If you're running a public tech company, how could you *not* be thinking about this? Especially if the stock jump holds.

• @matthewstoller Matt Stoller on x

  This story will be seen as ‘AI being disruptive’ instead of a payment company well-known for enabling systematic fraud firing its employees to enable more fraud. The slopification of American business.

• @chooserich Nick O'Neill on x

  What tech company won't layoff half their staff when the market rewards it this much? This is the brutal side of AI playing out in real-time... [image]

• @godsburnt Shibo on x

  Companies in 2020: “Work from home is the future.” Companies in 2024: “Return to the office or get fired.” Companies in 2026: “You've been replaced by AI, and we need to let you go.” Employees who sold their cars, moved 4 states away, moved back, and commuted for 2 years: [video]

• @nic_carter Nic Carter on x

  A wise man name of Citrini spoke of this...

• @toly @toly on x

  Didn't @jack have 10k people running this website when only 75 were needed even before AI?

• @shiri_shh Shirish on x

  Jack Dorsey just laid off 4000 people in a single tweet AI taking jobs is not a meme anymore. [image]

• @ccatalini Christian Catalini on x

  1/ It's happening: “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” https://x.com/...

• @cernovich @cernovich on x

  The first major AI related mass layoffs. There will be more of these. If you're in a white collar line of work, please have a plan. 🙏

• @gregisenberg Greg Isenberg on x

  4000 people laid off today at Block the reason is AI “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

• @finnmurphy12 Finn Murphy on x

  lol Block/Square stock is up like 20% on laying off 40% of their headcount while growing and profitable. The Faustian bargain that big tech made with society was by creating a nuevoaristocracy of laptop-class landed gentry, their founders and shareholders were allowed to become

• @notthreadguy @notthreadguy on x

  stock rips 25% in fifteen minutes on news that 40% of the company is being laid off for ai and you think the citrini article is fiction? [image]

• @frankieislost Frankie on x

  december 2019. doctors in wuhan hospitals notice pneumonia cases that don't fit the usual patterns. patients aren't responding to standard treatments. some have no clear exposure history.

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  Stunning in its candor. And if you're one of those spared, how could you not be wondering how long until AI comes for your job too?

• @vinny_daniel0 Vinny Daniel on x

  “Claude layoff 4k people and restructure my org to have no interruption to any business functions. Make no mistakes” [image]

• @nathalberstadt Nathan Halberstadt on x

  Dark side of this is Jack clearly leveraging the mass layoff as a PR stunt, ("I'm decisive and embrace the future unlike others who are baby-stepping this" type framing), which if effective (in terms of valuation, etc.), could have a memetic effect across the startup ecosystem.

• @markpinc Mark Pincus on x

  This is what $SNAP needs to do too.

• @scobleizer Robert Scoble on x

  Honest post about AI's effect on employment in tech from the cofounder of this site.

• @marcelolima Marcelo P. Lima on x

  Jack Dorsey is using AI as political cover to slash headcount but the reality is Block was incredibly bloated and mismanaged for years. Jack knew it, Amrita knew it, everyone knew it. They did nothing. Don't forget: Jack was head of Twitter. Elon slashed Twitter's headcount by

• @ericjackson Eric Jackson on x

  @jack wants to battle with @nejatian on who is the most AI-pilled CEO in a steel cage match!

• @dcurtis Dustin Curtis on x

  If you're not a software engineer, this should be a wakeup call to what has happened in the past few months with AI engineering tools. Everything has changed. Now we get to watch as companies learn how to either use these tools in earnest or slowly fall behind.

• @alexfinn Alex Finn on x

  Jack Dorsey just laid off half of his company in a single tweet. 4,000 people gone Not because business is down But because AI made them unnecessary If you aren't AI native, you have become expendable to execs. You need to learn these skills now: 1. How to build software in

• @marcelolima Marcelo P. Lima on x

  Better 17 years late than never $XYZ [image]

• @timcast Tim Pool on x

  So 4k jobs lost due to AI take over?

• @sravs @sravs on bluesky

  He thinks people will buy his explanations. wow. techbros are some other level man [embedded post]

• @drewharwell.com Drew Harwell on bluesky

  Getting mass fired in all lower case x.com/jack/status/...  [image]

• @codepo8 Chris Heilmann on bluesky

  It is depressing to see the positive impact sacking people has on shares.  —  Block shares soar 24% as company slashes workforce by nearly half www.cnbc.com/2026/02/26/b...

• @anildash.com Anil Dash on bluesky

  Thinking of all the friends and colleagues I know who are amongst the folks affected by the gutting at Block/Square today.  And just a heads-up: the COO/CFO who led that effort there is on the board of of Discord and AirBNB.  Make your plans accordingly.

• @prietschka Paul Rietschka on bluesky

  This is the corporate blueprint in tech for the next 2-5 years, for those of you in the field and planning to stay.  —  The rolling layoffs will be brutal; AI will be the excuse for everything.  —  Good luck.  You will need it.  —  x.com/jack/status/...

• r/LateStageCapitalism r on reddit

  Block shares soar as much as 24% as company slashes workforce by nearly half

• r/StockMarket r on reddit

  Block +24% after-hours as it cuts 4,000 jobs, nearly half its workforce, in AI-driven restructuring