Jack Dorsey's Block cuts 40% of staff, 4,000+ people — and yes, it's because of AI efficiencies

Former Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's new company Block — the parent of merchants payment system Square, mobile peer-to-peer payments Cash App, music streamer Tidal, and open source AI agentic system Goose — is sending shockwaves across the business world tonight after announcing a more than 40% headcount, cutting its workforce by more than 4,000 people out of a prior total of 10,000, despite its latest quarterly earnings statement released today showing $2.87 billion in gross profit up 24% year-over-year.

The culprit? Newfound AI efficiencies. As Dorsey put it in a note shared on his own former social network, X:

"we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. 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 ...