Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block Inc, is not only laying off nearly half of the company’s workforce, but he wants investors to think he’s an AI-focused trailblazer for doing so.
In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Dorsey shared that Block’s workforce is shrinking from over 10,000 people to just below 6,000 people, with some employees entering consultation.
Dorsey credits “intelligence tools” with motivating the change, explaining that these tools and a “significantly smaller team” will allow the company to be better and do more.
Block owns fintech brands such as the Square point-of-sale system, Cash App, and Afterpay, along with the music streaming service Tidal.
A familiar story
If the idea of laying off employees in favor of leaner operations sounds familiar, don’t tell Dorsey that. He frames his announcement to embrace AI and put thousands of people out of a job as a forward-looking decision.
“I don’t think we’re early to this realization. I think most companies are late,” Dorsey states. “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. I’d rather get there honestly and on our own terms than be forced into it reactively.”
Block investors cheer the news
All of this came in a letter dedicated to Block’s quarter four of 2025. Dorsey shared that Block’s gross profits doubled from quarter one to four immediately after announcing the layoffs.
Shares of Block Inc (NYSE: XYZ) were up more than 20% in premarket trading on Friday in the wake of the news.
However, as of Thursday’s close, the stock was down more than 16% year to date. It has been trading far below the high point it had reached during the early COVID era.
Dorsey took to X (formerly Twitter, which he cofounded) to share his note to employees, using his standard no-capitals style.
In the post, Dorsey says that laid-off employees in the U.S. will receive 20 weeks of salary, plus a week for every year of work.
They will also get six months of healthcare, equity vested through the end of May, their corporate devices, and $5,000 to soften the transition. As is typical, employees outside the U.S. will receive different severance based on local (and typically better) requirements.
It will likely not come as a great relief to those losing their jobs that, as Dorsey states, “We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble.”
He adds that Block won’t “disappear” employees from Slack and email, instead giving them until the vague time of “Thursday evening (pacific)” to get things in order. Dorsey claims he will send an additional note on Friday to all remaining employees.
Reactions to the Block layoffs are pointed
Unsurprisingly, many people didn’t respond favorably to the news of Block’s layoffs.
“As we’ve reported before, the key to understanding Jack Dorsey is how much he follows other tech figures and executives that came before him. He used to idolize Steve Jobs. Now he idolizes Elon Musk,” New York Times tech reporter Ryan Mac wrote on Bluesky.
Many users took issue with the lowercase format that Dorsey used to deliver such important news on X.
“Imagine you get canned and your CEO posts a tweet about it without any uppercase letters like he’s an early 20s girl,” one user responded on X.
On Bluesky, another user put it succinctly: “This reminds me of the old adage, ‘Never work for Jack Dorsey under any circumstances.’”