<p id="speakable-summary" class="wp-block-paragraph">It appears using AI as a cover story for cutting jobs is fast falling out of fashion. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Unlike many of his tech industry peers who have <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/15/the-ai-layoff-wave-is-becoming-a-powder-keg/">cut thousands of jobs this year</a> citing the need to restructure their teams to make the most of AI, Robinhood’s CEO Vlad Tenev conspicuously made no mention of AI in his <a href="https://x.com/RobinhoodComms/status/2066828553199464933" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">note to employees</a> announcing that the company is letting go 10% of its full-time employees, or about 290 people.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Nor did the company’s regulatory <a href="https://investors.robinhood.com/node/16041/html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">filing</a> announcing the move, which instead framed the cuts as a restructuring exercise.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Still, Tenev did say the company would use “frontier technologies to push our execution even further,” which sounds like a conscious effort to avoid even naming AI. Which isn’t surprising: Sentiment <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54888-more-expect-artificial-intelligence-ai-affect-economy-negatively-than-positively-americans-split-how-ai-will-impact-their-lives-may-29-june-1-2026-economist-yougov-poll" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">against AI</a> and related infrastructure projects has been <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">trending lower</a> even as a small minority of tech executives make <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/technology/spacex-ipo-employee-millionaires.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">ridiculous bank</a>.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But Tenev did add to the ongoing narrative that it’s now necessary for companies to operate with smaller teams and “flatter organizational structures,” writing: “We cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team where every single individual is empowered to make a massive impact.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We’ve seen companies of various stripes, from <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/28/amazon-says-it-is-laying-off-16000-employees/">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/26/jack-dorsey-block-layoffs-4000-halved-employees-your-company-is-next/">Block</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/05/coinbase-to-lay-off-14-of-staff-as-part-of-broader-restructuring/">Coinbase</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/03/gitlab-cuts-14-of-staff-as-it-scales-its-platform-to-serve-ai-workloads/">GitLab</a>, and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/20/intuit-to-lay-off-over-3000-employees-to-refocus-on-ai/">Intuit</a> employing similar language in their layoff announcements, indicating that large teams, bureaucracy, and siloed departments are now seen as undesirable line items at a time when AI tools promise to significantly improve productivity.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some even think it’s a tacit allusion to the fact that tech companies <a href="https://www.fortune.com/2026/03/31/marc-andreessen-ai-layoffs-silver-bullet-excuse-overhiring/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">over-hired</a> following the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now scaling back as expenses begin to pile up — especially those associated with massive AI usage.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Regardless, these companies are doing quite well. Tech stocks have surged broadly, spurred by record <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/cisco-cuts-nearly-4000-jobs-to-spend-more-on-ai-reports-record-quarterly-revenue/">revenues</a>, improving profit margins (GitLab reported <a href="https://ir.gitlab.com/news/news-details/2026/GitLab-Reports-First-Quarter-Fiscal-Year-2027-Financial-Results/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">88% gross margin</a> last month), skyrocketing demand for <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/29/google-cloud-surpasses-20b-but-says-growth-was-capacity-constrained/">cloud services</a>, and the belief that the billions being poured into data center projects will <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-data-center-ownership/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">produce returns that are orders of magnitudes higher</a>.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Robinhood itself <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/04/28/3283181/0/en/robinhood-reports-first-quarter-2026-results.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">reported</a> a 15% improvement in first-quarter revenue in April, and the company said its second quarter is looking better thanks to rising prediction market fees, subscription revenue, and strong equity and option-trading volumes as markets stabilize.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The company said on Tuesday it is also closing “a small number” of open roles, and that it would incur about $28 million in costs related to the cuts.</p>
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