The Big Story: Visa’s Record Quarter Still Ended in 2,600 Layoffs
Visa just had one of its best quarters ever.
Q3 FY2026: revenue up 11% year over year, net income up 14%. The kind of numbers that make shareholders happy and CEOs confident.
Then they announced 2,600 layoffs anyway.
The payments giant — which processes roughly $15 trillion in transactions every year — is cutting 7% of its global workforce. The bulk of the cuts hit tech and product roles: the engineers and builders who make the platform run.
This isn’t a struggling company trying to survive. Visa posted nearly $19 billion in quarterly revenue. They have the money. They’re making a choice.
CEO Ryan McInerney said the company is restructuring to “increase focus” and invest more in AI-driven capabilities. Translation: they believe AI tools can handle work that used to require a team of people.
Why this matters for you: Visa is not a startup. It’s not a cash-burning tech company trying to extend its runway. It’s one of the most profitable businesses on Earth — and it’s cutting 2,600 tech workers in a record-profit quarter because it believes fewer humans are needed to run the same platform.
If a company with $19 billion in quarterly revenue is making that bet, you can expect others to follow.
The AI restructuring wave isn’t coming for struggling companies. It’s coming for the comfortable ones, too.
Stat of the Week
443,604
That’s the number of planned US job cuts in the first half of 2026, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It’s the second-highest H1 total since 2020.
The reason companies keep citing? AI. For four consecutive months, artificial intelligence has been the single most commonly stated reason for US layoffs. Not a tough market. Not competition. Not interest rates.
AI.
That’s not a trend anymore. That’s a pattern.
Quick Hits
Samsung is leaving New Jersey for Texas — and dropping 839 jobs on the way out.
Samsung Electronics America filed a WARN Act notice covering 739 roles at its Englewood Cliffs, NJ campus, plus roughly 100 more at its Plano, TX office. The company is relocating its US headquarters to Plano by end of 2026 — just 10 months after opening its $700 million New Jersey campus. Some workers got relocation offers. Many got severance.
BuzzFeed’s new owner cut 35% of staff in his first months on the job.
Byron Allen completed a $120 million acquisition of BuzzFeed in May and wasted no time. A Form 8-K filed with the SEC on July 22 confirmed an approximately 35% workforce reduction — about 180 employees across BuzzFeed, HuffPost, Tasty, and BuzzFeed Studios. Expected annualized savings: $29–32 million.
Monday.com cut 630 people and called it a strategic pivot.
The work management platform filed a Form 6-K with the SEC announcing it’s eliminating 20% of its global workforce — about 630 roles — as it transitions from a seat-based software model to an AI-agent platform. The restructuring will cost an estimated $45–55 million. About 350 of the cuts are based at the Tel Aviv headquarters.
Magic Leap is done building headsets. Now it sells the glass inside them.
The Florida-based AR pioneer announced a strategic pivot away from first-party devices and toward becoming a waveguide supplier for companies building AI display glasses. A WARN Act filing covers 193 terminations effective October 1. Magic Leap is betting the most valuable thing it built isn’t the headset — it’s the optics stack.
Companies Hiring Right Now
The news cycle is full of layoffs. These companies are actively hiring remote-friendly roles:
HubSpot — CRM and marketing software. 72% of open roles are fully remote. Hiring across engineering, sales, and customer success.
GitLab — DevSecOps platform. Fully remote since founding. 2,500+ employees across 65+ countries. Open roles in engineering, product, and security.
Automattic — The company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, and WooCommerce. 1,400+ people in 83 countries, zero offices. Fully distributed, fully remote.
Databricks — AI and data platform with 10,000+ employees. Hybrid-first with remote options across engineering, sales, and support.
Shopify — E-commerce infrastructure, roughly 8,000 employees. “Digital by Design” model means most roles are remote across the Americas by default.
Career Signal: The Job That Didn’t Exist Three Years Ago
AI Red Teamer / AI Safety Engineer
Three days from now — August 2, 2026 — the EU AI Act reaches full enforcement.
Every company deploying high-risk AI systems in Europe now has to prove those systems have been tested for failure modes, safety risks, and biases. That’s not a legal checkbox. That’s a job description.
AI red teamers are paid to attack AI systems on purpose — finding the prompts, edge cases, and failure modes that could cause real harm before bad actors find them first. Think of it as penetration testing, but for language models.
Demand is real: 60% of organizations expect to adopt AI red teaming practices within 24 months. Job postings for AI safety and security roles have grown over 300% year over year.
The barrier to entry is lower than you’d expect. You don’t need a computer science degree. Security researchers, policy analysts, and people who naturally think about systems in adversarial terms are landing these roles. The skill that matters most: the ability to think about what goes wrong, not just what goes right.
What to search: “AI Red Teamer,” “AI Safety Evaluator,” “Responsible AI Engineer,” “LLM Security Researcher”
Skill-Building Reads
Three free resources worth your time this week:
Anthropic Academy — Free courses on prompt engineering and practical AI skills, from the team building Claude. If you want AI fluency on your resume without paying for a bootcamp, start here.
O*NET OnLine — The US Department of Labor’s career database. Search any job title and get a breakdown of required skills, median pay, growth outlook, and daily tasks. Underrated for career pivots and salary research.
DOL TEAMS Salary Negotiation Guide — Free downloadable PDF from the Department of Labor. Covers how to research market pay, frame counteroffers, and negotiate without torpedoing the offer. Built for transitioning veterans, useful for everyone.
Quick Win
Set up a Google Alert for “[company you’re interviewing with] + SEC filing” or “[company name] + WARN notice.” If a company you’re in conversations with is planning layoffs, you’ll often find out before the news breaks publicly. Takes 90 seconds to set up and could save you from walking into a shrinking organization.
What We’re Watching
The EU AI Act’s August 2 enforcement deadline is the biggest regulatory moment in AI since the GDPR. The companies scrambling to comply will need people who can actually explain what “high-risk AI system” means to regulators, leadership teams, and auditors. Watch for a wave of AI governance, compliance, and safety job postings in the next 30 to 60 days.
Bottom Line
Visa cut 2,600 tech workers in the same quarter it made record profits. That’s the clearest signal yet: AI restructuring isn’t about saving companies in trouble — it’s about profitable ones deciding they can run leaner.
The opportunity for job seekers isn’t in fighting that reality. It’s in building the skills that put you on the right side of it — the roles that require human judgment, AI fluency, and the ability to work alongside automation rather than compete with it.
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