In a recent Forbes feature, Renana Ashkenazi reports on Jack Dorsey’s decision to cut more than 4,000 employees at Block and the immediate $8 billion increase in market value that followed.
Block, the company behind Square, Cash App and Afterpay, cut nearly half its workforce. The stock jumped almost 24% in after-hours trading, adding roughly $8 billion in value, about $2 million per eliminated job.
Jack Dorsey framed the move as an AI-driven structural shift, not a financial emergency. “Intelligence tools,” combined with “smaller and flatter teams,” have changed how Block operates.
Rather than gradual cuts, Jack Dorsey chose to act immediately: “Repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale.” He added: “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion.”
Block built an open-source AI agent, Goose, used weekly by 60% of its workforce. The tool automates tasks like code generation and data analysis. Block’s CTO said Goose saves engineers eight to ten hours per week and is on track to eliminate 25% of manual hours. The sequence was clear: build, measure, then cut.
The reaction “almost looks like an instruction manual.” A company announces AI-driven cuts, and the stock jumps.
“The price tag is now public. The question isn’t just who moves next, it’s who’s allowed to.”
Read the full article by Renana Ashkenazi here.
