AI layoffs are everywhere. Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale suspects many of them aren’t because of AI at all.
The layoff memos look quite similar, from Block to Atlassian to Coinbase. They cite productivity gains from AI technology and the need for smaller teams with fewer layers.
Lonsdale isn’t convinced.
“Everyone who over-hired or lowered the bar too much in the 2021-2023 wave, or isn’t growing as fast as budgeted, now pretends they’re laying people off ‘due to AI productivity,'” Lonsdale wrote on X.
The post quickly gained traction online, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen co-signed the message. Khosla Ventures partner Jon Chu also cosigned and called out “Meta and Square as clear examples.”
Gannon McCollum, a staffer at Elon Musk’s xAI, commented that the AI excuse “sounds a lot better than leadership admitting they failed to manage their growth.” Lonsdale responded with a bullseye emoji.
Dockvine founder Sid Jain called it the “PR machine.” Fuse founder Alan Chang asked: “If leaders can’t admit their own mistakes, how can they expect employees to admit theirs?”
Lonsdale isn’t the first to suspect something was amiss in these layoff rationales. In February, Sam Altman said that companies were “AI-washing” their layoffs.
“People are blaming AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do,” the OpenAI CEO said.
Block CEO Jack Dorsey was specifically accused of masking a correction to his over-hiring during the pandemic. He responded that it was true, but that it “misses all the complexity.”
Lonsdale is a big believer in AI. 8VC, the venture capital firm where Lonsdale is a general partner, is invested in several AI companies.
“I believe in higher productivity thanks to AI,” Lonsdale wrote in a comment. “I also know what hundreds of companies are doing.”
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