TechCrunch: Running list of major tech layoffs in 2026 where employers cited AI

TechCrunch updated its running tracker of major tech layoffs on July 25, 2026, after Monday.com announced it was cutting 600 employees — 20% of its workforce — and explicitly cited AI as a factor. The list now covers 21 companies that have named AI in connection with significant headcount reductions this year.

The numbers are large. U.S. tech firms have eliminated nearly 140,000 jobs in 2026 so far, with Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Microsoft accounting for roughly 50,000 of those cuts. The reductions span every major category of enterprise software: productivity tools, cloud infrastructure, fintech, and e-commerce. Block reduced its workforce by nearly 50%, the largest proportional cut on the list. IBM, Dell, PayPal, Salesforce, Google, GitLab, Snap, Cloudflare, Cisco, and Atlassian all appear alongside them.

The article introduces an important complication: companies that cited AI as a driver of layoffs underperformed the Nasdaq by approximately 10% in the 30 trading days following the announcement. Investor skepticism about AI-efficiency justifications appears measurable.

Meta is an instructive counterpoint to a simple contraction story. It cut 8,000 employees while simultaneously moving 7,000 others into new AI-focused roles. This rebalancing pattern appears across several companies on the list — the cuts are not pure reduction but a shift toward a different skill mix and organizational structure.

For product managers, the operational relevance lies in where the cuts concentrate. They are falling on roles defined around feature delivery in structured organizations — the same roles that AI coding tools, automated QA, and specification agents most directly affect. At the same time, demand for PMs who can define evaluation criteria, design agent behavior, and manage AI product quality is visibly rising: 61% of PM job postings now mention AI experience, up from 12% two years ago. The two trends are happening simultaneously, which means the question is not whether to adapt but which direction to move.