A sincere layoff letter from former Twitter co-founder: AI can do your job, you can go now

I don’t think we were early; I believe most companies were late.

Author: Curry, Deep潮 TechFlow

Last night after the US stock market closed, a company called Block saw its stock price surge by 25%.

It wasn’t because of a new product launch or landing a big client. It was because the CEO announced layoffs of nearly half the staff.

From over 10,000 employees down to less than 6,000. Over 4,000 people gone.

Once the news broke, investors responded with real money. The closing price was $54, and after hours it jumped directly to $67. In one night, Block’s market value increased by nearly $3 billion.

Laying off 4,000 people, gaining $3 billion in market cap.

By this calculation, each layoff is worth $750,000.

Many people might not have heard of the name Block, but you’ve probably seen its products.

Square, the small white card reader used on American streets for small merchants to accept payments. Cash App, used by young Americans for transfers, similar to a US version of Alipay.

The company’s full-year revenue for 2025 is $24.2 billion, with a gross profit exceeding $10 billion, making it a fintech giant listed on Nasdaq.

Its CEO is Jack Dorsey. You might not know the name, but you definitely know one of his other roles—he is a co-founder of Twitter. Founded Twitter in 2006, served as CEO twice, and resigned in 2021.

A year later, his friend Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X.

Now, Dorsey is fully focused on Block. He’s also a Bitcoin extremist, with Bitcoin on Block’s balance sheet, and the company has invested in Bitcoin mining and self-custody tools.

Layoffs are usually accompanied by similar rhetoric from most CEOs.

Strategic adjustments, organizational optimization, focusing on core business. In plain language, it’s you being fired, but they don’t want to sound too harsh.

Dorsey didn’t do that.

In a letter to shareholders, he directly wrote: “Intelligence tools have changed the way companies build and operate. A smaller team, using the tools we are developing, can do more and do it better. And these tools are getting stronger every week.”

Translate that: AI can do your job now, and it’s getting better at it.

He didn’t even use the word “AI,” probably to make it sound less harsh.

But he added another paragraph on X: He could have chosen to lay off gradually, over several months, dragging it out for years. But he believed that repeated layoffs destroy morale, so he preferred to do it all at once.

“I’d rather make a tough but clear decision now than slowly reduce headcount toward the same outcome.”

This might be the first CEO in the AI boom to openly admit that layoffs are justified by the capabilities of tools, not industry cycles, macroeconomic conditions, or strategic errors. Simply put: tools are more powerful than people.

You can’t say he’s insincere. But this kind of honesty is more uncomfortable than boilerplate statements.

We also checked the employee numbers at Block.

Public data shows that at the end of 2019, Block had a total of 3,835 employees. Then the pandemic hit, online payments exploded, Cash App users skyrocketed, and the company started hiring furiously. By the end of 2025, it had 10,205 employees.

In six years, nearly tripled.

Now, they’ve cut back to 6,000.

In other words, the 6,000+ employees hired during the pandemic, who worked for a few years, are now categorized as “replaceable by intelligence tools.”

Block isn’t an isolated case. During those pandemic years, almost all tech companies were hiring aggressively. Meta doubled its staff in two years, then started three rounds of layoffs from 2022. Amazon and Google experienced similar expansion and contraction.

But this time, Block is different. Other companies might give some reasons for layoffs, but Dorsey directly blames AI.

He also said in his public letter:

“I don’t think we were early; I think most companies were late.” Within a year, most companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar adjustments.

And his approach reminds me of someone.

In October 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, and in the first week, laid off about 3,700 people—almost half the staff.

At the time, Silicon Valley thought he was crazy. Advertisers fled, the system frequently crashed, and public opinion was overwhelmingly critical. Twitter’s valuation shrank from $44 billion to less than $20 billion under his leadership.

Dorsey watched all this unfold. Not only was he a co-founder of Twitter, but he also publicly supported Musk’s acquisition. The two have a good relationship.

Three years later, Dorsey did almost the same thing at his own company.

He cut nearly half the staff in one go, no dragging it out. Even his management methods were copied:

Musk required federal employees to email their top five achievements weekly for Dogecoin, and Dorsey required Block employees to email him five work accomplishments weekly.

Then he used AI to summarize these emails.

The difference? The results. After Musk cut Twitter, the market saw it as sabotage. After Dorsey cut Block, the market saw it as leading the future. Same move, one lost over $20 billion in valuation, the other gained $3 billion in market cap.

What’s the difference?

Dorsey did two additional things. First, he released a very good financial report: Q4 gross profit grew 24%, Cash App gross profit increased 33%, and the 2026 profit forecast exceeded analyst expectations. Second, he framed the layoffs with the best narrative of this era:

“It’s not layoffs; it’s AI transformation.”

Actually, before this decision last night, internal chaos had already been brewing at Block for weeks.

In early February this year, the company first laid off about 10% of staff, roughly 1,100 positions. At the same time, Dorsey issued a directive: “All employees must use AI tools in their daily work.”

According to Wired, some employees expressed dissatisfaction: “If these tools were really good, we would have used them ourselves already.”

Then came the weekly email system. Everyone had to email Dorsey weekly, listing their top five work achievements. Dorsey used AI to summarize these emails.

Think about this process: you’re asked to prove your value to the CEO every week, and the CEO doesn’t even read what you send.

According to Wired, during a company-wide meeting, an employee said: “This is the lowest morale I’ve felt in four years, the company culture is collapsing.” Others said they didn’t know if they’d have a job next week and couldn’t plan their lives.

Dorsey responded: “Some of you have been slacking.”

On one side, employees don’t know if they’ll have a job tomorrow; on the other, the CEO says some are just loafing. This conversation happened in the same room.

Block isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last.

Shopify’s CEO told employees this year that if they want to hire more, they first need to prove AI can’t do the job. Klarna’s CEO publicly celebrated AI replacing 700 customer service jobs. An internal Amazon memo said the company needs “fewer layers” because AI is the “most transformative technology since the internet”…

But these companies are mostly disguising layoffs as “efficiency improvements” or “organizational upgrades.” Dorsey is the first to tear the window paper completely, openly stating that AI can do your job, and the capital market rewarded him with a 25% increase.

That’s the most frightening part.

CEOs now realize: openly saying “I replaced half the staff with AI” won’t get punished; it will be rewarded.

Finally, after reading Dorsey’s shareholder letter and his full post on X last night, I have one feeling: this person truly isn’t lying.

The company’s performance is good; he’s not pretending to be distressed. The reason for layoffs is AI; he’s not making excuses. The severance package includes 20 weeks’ salary plus a week per year of service, plus six months of health insurance and a $5,000 relocation bonus—more generous than many companies.

He even arranged a live video to personally thank those laid off. He admitted it might seem awkward.

We have reason to believe he’s sincere.

But sincerity doesn’t change anything. 4,000 people will wake up tomorrow still unemployed, while Dorsey will wake up to a more valuable company.

There’s a detail all workers should pay attention to.

The employees at Block who were laid off were asked in recent weeks to use AI daily and to email the CEO weekly to prove their value. They complied. And then they were probably laid off anyway.

In other words, being able to use AI doesn’t guarantee your safety, and proving your worth doesn’t either. When the company decides to do the same work with fewer people, your effort only makes that conclusion come sooner.

Dorsey says most companies will do the same within a year.

I don’t know if he’s right, but one thing is certain:

When your boss starts seriously considering how many jobs AI can replace, you’d better also think about whether your income depends solely on that paycheck.