Block Lays Off 40% of Staff, CEO Jack Dorsey Says AI Has Changed How Companies Are Built

Block, the fintech conglomerate founded by Jack Dorsey, will cut nearly half of its workforce—over 4,000 jobs from a total of 10,000 employees. Shares of the payment company surged more than 25% after hours trading on Thursday. Dorsey wrote in a letter to shareholders that AI tools have changed the meaning of building and running a company. "A significantly smaller team, using the tools we are building, can do more and do it better," he stated. Dorsey is one of the first Silicon Valley CEOs to publicly link a large layoff wave to AI's ability to replace human labor.

Block's move marks a significant turning point in the debate surrounding AI and employment. While many tech companies still shy away from direct statements—Amazon recently laid off 30,000 people but tried to downplay the AI factor—Jack Dorsey chose to confront it head-on. He made no secret: AI has changed the business equation, and companies that fail to recognize this will fall behind.

What's notable is not merely the 4,000 job losses, but Dorsey's justification for the decision. He didn't speak of "restructuring" or "optimizing performance"—terms often used by CEOs to obscure the truth. Instead, he explicitly stated: a smaller team with AI tools can perform better than a larger team without AI. This is the strongest signal yet from Silicon Valley that AI is not just a supportive tool, but a replacement force.

The 25% stock surge indicates that Wall Street is rewarding companies that dare to make significant cuts. Investors are betting that lower costs and higher productivity thanks to AI will yield substantial profits. However, this is also a sign of an impending wave of layoffs. Dorsey declared that "most companies" would follow this path within the next year.

The bigger question is: which jobs are safe? Dorsey did not specify which roles AI would replace at Block, but Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had previously warned that white-collar positions would be most heavily impacted. If Dorsey's predictions hold true, 2026 will be the year when hundreds of thousands of office workers—from accounting, HR, and marketing to...

The Vietnamese community working in the tech industry—especially in roles such as software engineers, product managers, and data analysts at fintech companies or payment startups—needs to closely monitor this trend. If the wave of "AI-driven" layoffs spreads as Dorsey predicts, the tech job market will shift from a "war for talent" to a "war for survival." Skills in working with AI tools, prompt engineering, and the ability to integrate AI into workflows will become distinguishing factors between those who are retained and those who are laid off.