Visa told staff it would cut 2,600 jobs — nearly 7% of its workforce — a day after reporting $11.6B in quarterly net revenue, up 14%. It's the largest cut in a fresh Bay Area wave that also hit Intel, Uber and Patreon, approaching 3,000 jobs.

Visa told staff Tuesday it would cut 2,600 jobs — nearly 7% of its workforce — one day after the San Francisco payments company reported $11.6 billion in quarterly net revenue, up 14% from a year earlier. The cut is the largest in a fresh wave of Bay Area layoffs that also pulled in Intel, Uber and Patreon, together approaching 3,000 jobs, according to reporting Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times.

Visa's math is the story. This is not a distressed company shedding weight; it is one of the most profitable franchises in American finance cutting headcount while revenue climbs. Chief Executive Ryan McInerney framed it as transformation — "AI is also helping to accelerate this evolution and shape the way work gets done at Visa," he wrote in the memo quoted by the Times. The company has not said how many of the 2,600 sit in its California offices, so the local number is undisclosed as of Wednesday.

The rest of the wave is smaller and more conventional. Intel filed for 103 cuts across four Santa Clara offices — 67 at its Juliette Lane site — effective Aug. 15, extending a restructuring that took more than 400 jobs there in July 2025. Uber is cutting 41 across three San Francisco offices, effective Sept. 21, part of a previously announced 10% reduction in customer-service staff the company also tied to AI. Patreon is the outlier: CEO Jack Cote said its 93-person cut (20% of the team) is a reprioritization and "not related to AI."

What's worth watching is whether Visa's WARN filing, when it lands with California's EDD, confirms the Bay Area share — and whether "AI-driven efficiency" at a company growing 14% is a rationale or a cover. The earnings were real; the headcount logic is the claim.