BANGKOK, Thailand: Financial technology firm Block is cutting more than 4,000 jobs, roughly 40 percent of its workforce, as it restructures around artificial intelligence, a move that sent its shares sharply higher in premarket trading on February 27.
CEO Jack Dorsey said the decision reflects how AI tools are transforming how companies operate.
"The core thesis is simple.
Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company," Dorsey wrote in a letter to shareholders of Block, which owns online payment platforms Square and Cash App.
"A significantly smaller team, using the tools we're building, can do more and do it better." The announcement pushed Block's stock up more than 20 percent before the market opened.
Shares had already risen five percent on February 26 to US$54.53 before earnings were released, then climbed to nearly $69 in after-hours trading.
The mobile payments provider reported that fourth-quarter gross profit rose 24 percent from a year earlier.
Dorsey's remarks, also posted....
