In a sweeping restructuring move, Jack Dorsey has announced that Block will cut more than 4,000 employees, reducing its workforce from over 10,000 to just under 6,000. The payments company, which operates Square, Cash App and Tidal, saw its stock jump more than 24% in after-hours trading following the announcement.
The move echoes a similar step taken by Elon Musk in November 2022, when he cut roughly 50% of Twitter’s staff after taking the company private. Dorsey had rolled his 2.4% stake in Twitter into Musk’s acquisition, becoming one of the largest outside investors in what later became X. The relationship between the 2 executives has shifted over time, from public support to criticism and back again. Dorsey initially backed the takeover but later said Musk “should have walked away.” Both leaders are strong Bitcoin supporters and Block and Tesla hold the cryptocurrency on their balance sheets.
Dorsey described the layoffs as a proactive decision rather than a financial crisis. “Repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead,” he wrote on X. He added, “I’d rather get there honestly and on our own terms than be forced into it reactively,” predicting that many companies will follow within a year. Block CFO Amrita Ahuja said the restructuring will help the company “move faster with smaller, highly talented teams using AI to automate more work.”
U.S. employees affected will receive “your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of May, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition.” International staff will receive similar support based on local policies. Other companies, including Salesforce and Amazon, have also cited AI gains while cutting jobs, though a recent report by Forrester Research questioned whether such benefits are fully realized or financially driven.
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