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Coinbase CEO: Company cutting 14% of employees

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the company is cutting 14% of its workforce, citing volatile crypto markets and artificial intelligence, saying he is “rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it.”

The cuts will impact about 700 employees and will be “substantially complete in the second quarter of 2026,” the company said in a regulatory filing. The restructuring will cost up to $60 million.

Armstrong said Coinbase will have fewer layers of management and lean heavily on AI. He said that engineers and nontechnical workers at Coinbase have been able to enhance their work with AI already.

The move comes as the company is scheduled to report earnings results on Thursday. The crypto bear market has been a headwind for the company in recent quarters, with analysts expecting the company’s Q1 profits to decline by 58% year over year.

Shares rose as much as 8% in premarket trading after the announcement. The company is down over 14% since the start of the year through yesterday’s close.

Coinbase is not the first struggling company to say it is cutting workers after finding efficiencies through AI.

Block, the payments and fintech firm led by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, announced in February that it would cut 40% of its 10,000-person workforce amid an AI push. The company is a fraction of where it was in 2021, as its financial results consistently came in under expectations. Dorsey acknowledged that the company “over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures.”

Coinbase is not the first struggling company to say it is cutting workers after finding efficiencies through AI.

Block, the payments and fintech firm led by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, announced in February that it would cut 40% of its 10,000-person workforce amid an AI push. The company is a fraction of where it was in 2021, as its financial results consistently came in under expectations. Dorsey acknowledged that the company “over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures.”

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Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan is surrounded by NBA Championship trophies after his team defeated the Utah Jazz 90-86 to win the 1997 NBA Finals at the United Center in Chicago, IL.

Stock climb on US-Iran peace deal; semiconductors rally

This morning, President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war.

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Intel surges after Trump announces US chip deal with Apple

Intel is soaring in early trading after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple has agreed to work with the semiconductor giant to design and manufacture its chips domestically.

President Trump positioned the agreement as the latest victory for his administration’s industrial policy after the federal government acquired a 9.9% equity stake in Intel last year.

"Stupid Presidents took our Economy for granted, and let Taiwan and others steal our Semiconductor Factories," Trump wrote in the post. "We design everything, but we need to BUILD it here, NOW! So I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America... and, finally, Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America."

Intel reportedly reached a preliminary agreement back in May to manufacture chips for the Apple, which has been facing supply constraints for its iPhone as well other products. The deal could help Apple reduce its reliance on longtime partner TSMC by bringing more of its chip manufacturing stateside.

"This partnership helps Apple with chip development and manufacturing on US soil with greater focus on reducing dependence on Asian manufacturing facilities." Wedbush's Dan Ives commented in a company report. He has a $400 price target for Apple this year.

The timing aligns with Intel's technical roadmap. Earlier this week, Intel confirmed that its advanced, performance-boosted 18A-P process node officially entered its risk production phase. This move serves as a blueprint for both Intel chips and processors the company plans to build for foundry customers.

“The current capacity crunch is probably emboldening customers to give Intel a harder look at this stage than perhaps they might ordinarily be inclined to do as the prospect of more advanced capacity will take on higher value in a constrained environment,” wrote Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon. “We are sure that Trump’s encouragement is at least not going to hurt though.”

Momentum was built around Intel Foundry services as surging global AI demand continuously outpaced capacity. Earlier this month, Google reportedly placed an order with Intel to manufacture more than 3 million of its increasingly popular tensor processing unit chips in 2028. According to the report, Nvidia is also testing to see if Intel could manufacture its next-gen Feynman chips.

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Stocks rise after US, Iran sign peace plan

Stocks rose Thursday morning after President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war, in another sign that a months-long war that caused energy prices to spike could be coming to an end.

Trump signed the MOU before a dinner in Versailles, France on Wednesday evening. The president previously announced that a deal had been reached on Sunday evening, saying that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would resume and that the US naval blockade would be lifted.

The deal comes after both sides exchanged attacks last week, escalating tensions to some of the highest levels since the US and Israel struck Iran in late February.

The price of Brent Crude ticked even lower after dropping on Sunday, sitting at about $76 a barrel. Oil giants like Shell, Chevron and Exxon fell on the news, as average gas prices in the US dropped below $4 for the first time in months.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% and 1.5%, respectively. Last week, inflation readings for May showed both wholesale inflation and consumer prices rose in large part because of higher energy costs.

Signs of the peace deal have also lead to buying of momentum stocks this week. iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETFrose another 1.46% in premarket trading.

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