Bitcoin pioneer Jack Dorsey wants 50% staff cut to feel “awkwardly human” as AI-era reset begins at Block

Block shares jumped more than 20% in premarket trading after CEO Jack Dorsey told employees the company will cut more than 4,000 roles and reorganize around an “AI-era” operating model.

The reduction takes Block from more than 10,000 employees to just under 6,000 (“nearly half,” in Dorsey’s wording), while the company’s 8-K describes a “Workforce Plan” that will reduce headcount by more than 40%.

Dorsey pitches “AI-era” reset as investors weigh cost cuts and growth targets

Block reported 10,205 full-time employees worldwide as of Dec. 31, 2025, in its annual filing. The company expects $450 million to $500 million in charges tied to the plan, with most of the charges recorded in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 and the plan substantially complete by the end of the second quarter.

Investors also responded to what Block paired with the cuts: a forward-looking framework that calls for $12.2 billion in gross profit in 2026, up 18% year over year, and $3.2 billion in adjusted operating income, a 26% margin.

That same letter puts 2025 gross profit at $10.36 billion, up 17% year over year, and fourth-quarter gross profit at $2.87 billion, up 24%, with Cash App at $1.83 billion and Square at $993 million. In trading, Block closed at $54.53, traded near $69 after hours, and gained more than 20% in premarket action.

Dorsey’s internal message (shared publicly on X) tried to set a different tone for how the company executes the reduction. He wrote that the process may feel “awkward and human” rather than “efficient and cold,” and he said the company would keep channels open so coworkers can say goodbye.

The same memo laid out severance terms that include 20 weeks of pay plus one additional week for each year of tenure, continued equity vesting through the end of May, six months of health care, permission to keep company devices, and $5,000 in transition support, with variations outside the U.S.

The filing’s charge range also provides a quick check of the scale of the restructuring beyond severance.

Dividing $450 million to $500 million by roughly 4,000 impacted roles yields about $112,000 to $125,000 per role, a combined figure that can include cash costs, benefits, and other items reflected in restructuring accounting.

What the restructuring signals about Block’s cost discipline and AI pivot

Block is also asking the market to take its “intelligence-native” framing as an execution plan, not a theme. In its shareholder letter, the company described “intelligence” as part of how it decides, manages risk, builds products, and serves customers, and it pointed to “proactive intelligence” efforts and Cash App testing that includes Moneybot.

The wager embedded in the stock move is that a smaller workforce can maintain product velocity and controls while the cost structure resets toward the company’s 2026 margin goal, with the next one to two quarters serving as the first test window as charges land and teams reorganize.

The layoff framing also lands in a labor-market dataset where companies increasingly cite AI alongside restructuring. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported 108,435 U.S. job cuts in January 2026, up 118% from a year earlier, and said AI was cited for 7,624 cuts, about 7% of the month’s total, per its January 2026 report.

The firm also tallied 54,836 AI-cited job cut plans in 2025 and wrote that markets appear to reward companies that mention AI.

A counterpoint has emerged that some companies may lean on AI branding while cutting for broader reasons.

For crypto-oriented investors, Block’s equity narrative still carries Bitcoin-linked swing factors even when the catalyst is headcount.

The company said it continues to ship Proto bitcoin mining units, and it reported that fourth-quarter 2025 net income included a $234 million negative impact from bitcoin remeasurement, compared with a $252 million benefit in the year-ago quarter.

Block also disclosed a fourth-quarter repurchase of 11.9 million shares for $790 million, leaving $5.3 billion in authorized repurchases.

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