I've got something to show you. 🩷

A company with $24 billion in revenue and 24% gross profit growth just cut 4,000 people while raising 2026 guidance to $12.2 billion in gross profit. Stock ripped 20% after hours. The market added roughly $6 billion in market cap. That's ~$1.5 million in enterprise value created per eliminated role. Block is the canary in the coal mine. And they're not alone. ASML cut 1,700 jobs last month while reporting record orders and said they were "choosing to make these changes at a moment of strength." Salesforce cut 5,000 after AI agents started handling 50% of customer interactions. Amazon cut 16,000 in January on top of 14,000 in October. Every one of these companies was growing when they did it. Dorsey said the quiet part out loud: intelligence tools paired with smaller teams have already changed what it means to run a company. He chose one massive cut over repeated rounds because, his words, gradual cuts destroy morale and trust. The restructuring charges are $450-500 million. At the operating income Block is guiding, that pays for itself in two quarters. After that, pure margin expansion. That's why Wall Street rewarded it instantly. Here's what's coming. Goldman estimates AI is already responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 net monthly job losses in exposed U.S. industries. Citigroup is planning 20,000 cuts. Dow just slashed 4,500. 40% of employers surveyed say they expect to reduce headcount because of AI. 30,700 tech jobs gone in the first six weeks of 2026 alone. Block went from 10,000 to 6,000 while growing revenue and raising guidance. Every CEO running a company with more than a few thousand employees is doing this math tonight. The canary just stopped singing.