Financial services company Block, co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has laid off 931 employees—roughly 8% of its global workforce—as part of a restructuring effort. The layoffs were announced in an internal email from Dorsey on Tuesday, according to a leaked message seen by TechCrunch.

The move marks the latest round of cuts at Block, which owns Cash App and Square, and comes just months after the company laid off about 1,000 employees in January 2024. While companies across the tech and fintech sectors have been making deep job cuts amid economic uncertainty,

Dorsey insisted in his email that these layoffs were not financially driven or related to artificial intelligence replacing human workers. Instead, he described the move as part of a strategic shift aimed at improving performance and flattening the company’s hierarchy.

Breakdown of the Layoffs

Dorsey explained that the layoffs fell into three broad categories. The first category includes 391 employees whose roles were cut due to “strategy” reasons. These job eliminations reflect shifting business priorities at Block, though Dorsey did not specify which areas were most affected.

The largest portion—460 employees—were laid off due to performance-related reasons. According to Dorsey, these employees either received a “below” rating on the company’s internal performance tracking system or were trending toward a lower rating.

The third group consists of 80 managers whose roles were eliminated as part of an effort to streamline Block’s corporate structure. An additional 193 managers have been reassigned from management roles to individual contributor positions. Dorsey’s goal is to flatten Block’s hierarchy to an “innercore+4” model, meaning he will have four levels of direct reports beyond his immediate leadership team.

In addition to the layoffs, Block is also eliminating 748 open job positions across the company, except for roles that are in the offer stage, key leadership positions, and critical operational jobs.

A Broader Trend of Restructuring in Fintech

The job cuts at Block are part of a broader trend across the fintech industry, where companies have been forced to make tough decisions amid tightening economic conditions and slowing growth. Tech giants and startups alike have been reevaluating their business models, trimming their workforce, and focusing on operational efficiency.

Block, which provides mobile payment services to consumers and point-of-sale solutions for businesses, has been navigating the evolving landscape of digital finance. While the company has grown rapidly in recent years, concerns over profitability and operational efficiency have pushed leadership to take aggressive restructuring measures.

Dorsey’s latest round of layoffs signals a continued shift in Block’s approach, prioritizing a leaner workforce while maintaining its focus on innovation. However, the repeated rounds of job cuts raise questions about the company’s long-term growth strategy and whether it can sustain its position as a fintech big shot without sacrificing workforce morale.

Below is the entire email Dorsey sent to Block employees on Tuesday, as reported by TechCrunch.

hi all.

today we’ll be making some org changes, including eliminating roles and beginning the consultation process in countries where required. i want to give you all the straight facts.

as I said at the last Block, there are three areas we’d like to address:

strategy: reducing from teams that are off strategy, and fixing our discipline ratios.

performance: parting ways with people with a “below” or trending towards “below.”

hierarchy: driving to flattening our org to a max depth of innercore+4

what that translates to in actual numbers of people.

• strategy: 391 people
• performance: 460 people
• hierarchy: 80 managers (with 193 moving it individual contributor roles)

we’re also closing all the 748 roles we had open with the exception of:

• roles progressed to offer stage.
• critical operational roles
• start/accelerate roles
• key leadership roles

none of the above points are trying to hit a specific financial target, replacing folks with AI, or changing our headcount cap. they are specific to our needs around strategy, raising the bar and acting faster on performance, and flattening our org so we can move faster and with less abstraction.

why do this all at once instead of over time? we’re behind in our actions, and that’s not fair to the individuals who work here or the company. when we know, we should move, and there hasn’t been enough movement. we need to move to help us meet and stay ahead of the transformational moment our industry is in.

this is the toughest part of my job, and I fight hard against any of these considerations. we must have a very high bar of correctness for us to take any action, which takes iteration and time to get right. i always balance this with the fact that everyone here, and those that are departing, has equity in our company. it’s my job to increase that value. we believe this will help us focus and execute better to do just that.

we’re working to give clarity to everyone as quickly, with as much context and support, as possible. you’ll receive an email soon about what this means for you. if there are areas where you think we could do better, please send me a note. direct feedback makes us better, and I always act when it makes sense.

thank you to all those leaving us. i am grateful and appreciative for you and your work, which has built us up to this point. we will continue to honor that by increasing our value to our customers, and therefore to all of our shareholders, including you.

thank you,

jack

The United States on Tuesday imposed sweeping export restrictions on dozens of Chinese technology companies in its first such move under the Donald Trump administration, marking an escalation in efforts to curb Beijing’s rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added 80 organizations to its “entity list,” including more than 50 Chinese firms. The designation bars U.S. companies from supplying these entities with critical technologies without obtaining special government permits, further tightening Beijing’s access to semiconductor and AI-related components.

This latest crackdown reflects growing concerns in Washington that China is outpacing the U.S. in AI development. For years, the U.S. has been at the forefront of AI research, but China’s ability to develop cost-effective, high-performance AI models has rattled American tech firms. One major example is DeepSeek, a fast-rising Chinese AI startup that has embraced open-source, low-cost AI models, making AI more accessible to businesses and developers. The affordability of these models has intensified competition, forcing U.S. companies—such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic—to rethink their premium, proprietary AI strategies.

With the cost of training and running large AI models soaring, U.S. companies have been pouring billions into AI research and chip development, yet China has managed to make AI deployment far cheaper and more efficient. This has put pressure on Washington to act, as Chinese AI innovations continue to challenge U.S. dominance in the sector.

The new sanctions are specifically designed to prevent China from accessing exascale computing technologies—critical for processing massive datasets at high speeds—as well as quantum advancements, both of which have significant military and economic applications.

The Commerce Department said many of the newly blacklisted firms were involved in AI research, supercomputers, and high-performance AI chips used for military purposes.

Two Chinese companies were specifically targeted for supplying restricted technologies to Huawei and its semiconductor subsidiary, HiSilicon, which had already been blacklisted by Washington.

In addition, 27 Chinese firms were sanctioned for acquiring U.S.-origin items to support Beijing’s military modernization, while another seven were penalized for aiding China’s progress in quantum computing. Six subsidiaries of Inspur Group, a major Chinese cloud computing firm that had been sanctioned under the Joe Biden administration in 2023, were also added to the list.

China Condemns U.S. Action as “Tech Containment”

China swiftly condemned the move, with its foreign ministry stating that Beijing “strongly opposes” the export restrictions and urging Washington to “stop generalizing national security” as a pretext for curbing China’s technological rise.

The latest restrictions signal another acknowledgment that U.S. leadership in AI is under serious threat. Despite Washington’s efforts to block China’s access to advanced semiconductors and AI chips—most notably through restrictions on Nvidia’s high-end GPUs—Chinese firms have continued to make breakthroughs in AI training and deployment.

“The latest additions cast an ever-widening net aimed at third countries, transit points, and intermediaries,” said Alex Capri, a senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore and author of Techno-Nationalism: How it’s Reshaping Trade, Geopolitics, and Society.

Chinese firms have reportedly continued to gain access to U.S. dual-use technologies—those with both civilian and military applications—through third-party intermediaries, Capri noted.

“U.S. officials will continue to step up tracking and tracing operations aimed at the smuggling of advanced semiconductors made by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD),” he added.

U.S. Struggles to Maintain Control Over AI Innovation

The Biden administration previously implemented a “small yard, high fence” approach—limiting access to a narrow set of advanced technologies with military applications while allowing normal trade in less-sensitive areas. However, this strategy has so far done little to stop China from making leaps in AI innovation.

Jeffrey I. Kessler, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, emphasized that the Trump administration is determined to prevent U.S. technologies from being “misused for high-performance computing, hypersonic missiles, military aircraft training, and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that threaten our national security.”

“The entity list is one of many powerful tools at our disposal to identify and cut off foreign adversaries seeking to exploit American technology for malign purposes,” Kessler added.

China’s AI sector continues to thrive, bolstered by government-backed investments, vast amounts of training data, and a more flexible regulatory environment. With DeepSeek and other Chinese AI firms gaining traction, the battle for AI supremacy is intensifying, putting Washington in a race against time to protect its technological advantage.

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