Block to axe 4,000 jobs as it embraces AI, shares soar

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Jack Dorsey's Block soared on Friday, after the fintech confirmed it would be axing nearly half of its workforce in favour of artificial intelligence.

In a letter sent to shareholders after the bell on Thursday, the Twitter co-founder said Block had shared a "difficult decision" with staff, to reduce the headcount from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000.

Dorsey said 2025 had been a strong year for the payments company, which also offers a range of bitcoin services, with gross profit growth more than doubling from the first to fourth quarter.

However, despite this the company has opted to change how it operates going forward. Dorsey said the move was not about efficiency. Instead, he argued: "Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. We're already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we're building, can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every week.

"Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes."

Dorsey said intelligence would now be "at the core" of how the company works, including "how we make decisions, how we build trust and manage risk, how we build products and how we serve customers".

He concluded: "We believe Block will be significantly more valuable as a smaller, faster, intelligence-native company. Everything we do from here is in service of that."

As at 1230 GMT, the stock had surged 21% in pre-market trading in New York.

Dorsey quit as chief executive of Twitter in 2021, ahead of Elon Musk buying the social media platform in 2022. A long time backer of crypto currencies, Dorsey founded Block - which owns brands including Square, CashApp and Tidal - in 2009, changing its name from Square in 2021.