Payment company Block (previously Stripe) has made its rhetoric around AI causing job losses more explicit than most, but its own disclosures still show more complex corporate finance in play. In its fourth quarter 2025 shareholder letter, Block reported full-year gross profit of $10.36 billion and said it was reorganising around faster execution, profitability, and the expected benefits of AI tools (note the use of the conditional phrasing). Markets rewarded the move because investors often welcome workforce reductions framed as efficiency. A company can say AI will make it leaner and use the claim to justify a headcount reduction that shareholders would welcome regardless.