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 profitabilit