Jack Dorsey’s Block is cutting nearly half of its AI gambling staff

Jack Dorsey’s Block, the fintech company that runs Square and the Cash app, is cutting its workforce by “nearly half” and cutting more than 4,000 jobs. The company will shrink from more than 10,000 people to less than 6,000, Dorsey says in a post on X. What is the reason? Amnesty International.

“We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble,” Dorsey says. “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 are already seeing that the intelligence tools we build and use, combined with smaller, more streamlined teams, are enabling a new way of working that fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. And this is rapidly accelerating.”

Dorsey chose to do massive layoffs rather than gradual cuts because “I would rather take tough, clear action now and build from a position we believe in rather than manage a slow reduction in people toward the same result.”

The layoffs were announced Thursday as part of the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings. In a letter to shareholders, Dorsey He says so “We believe Block will be significantly more valuable as a smaller, faster, intelligence-driven company. Everything we do from here is in service of that.”