On May 28, 2024, Visa's headquarters in San Francisco announced a significant reduction in workforce, planning to cut approximately 2,600 jobs, which represents around 7% of its total employees. This move comes as the payment processing giant aims to restructure its technology and product teams while increasing its focus on artificial intelligence within the digital payments space.
In a memo to staff, CEO Ryan McInerney emphasized the need for greater efficiency and the reallocation of resources to areas deemed to hold greater potential for future growth. He stated, “To capture the opportunities ahead and best position Visa to lead this transformation, we must continue evolving how we work. AI is also helping to accelerate this evolution and shape how work gets done at Visa.”
A spokesperson for the company confirmed these job cuts to Reuters, highlighting that the majority of eliminations will impact the technology and product divisions, though other departments could also see layoffs. The specific number of San Francisco headquarters and Foster City campus positions affected has yet to be revealed.
Visa established its global headquarters at Mission Rock in San Francisco in 2024, employing nearly 1,000 personnel at that time, alongside a large campus in Foster City for its technology and product staff. Notifications for affected employees were expected to start being delivered on the same day as the announcement.
As of the conclusion of its 2025 fiscal year, Visa reported a global workforce of about 34,100, reflecting an 8% increase from the previous year. The planned layoffs of 2,600 employees would represent a bit more than 7% of this total.
McInerney expressed that the company intends to redirect its investments into areas with high growth potential, such as cross-border transactions, B2B payments, services targeted at affluent consumers, geographic expansion, and innovative digital payment solutions involving stablecoins. He noted, “As a result of the choices we have made over the past few years, we are entering a new era in commerce with a business that has real momentum.”
While the integration of artificial intelligence is a significant factor in Visa's restructuring, it is not the sole reason for the job reductions. The company has been progressively adopting AI across its operations. In its 2025 annual report, Visa revealed that nearly 26,000 employees had utilized an internal generative-AI tool for over 261,000 interactions since its launch in March.
In related news, Mastercard recently announced a workforce reduction of about 4% to reallocate their spending towards other strategic initiatives, while financial technology firm Block also revealed plans to cut around 4,000 jobs. Visa's layoffs come on the heels of previous job cuts across the Bay Area, including hundreds of roles in San Francisco and San Mateo that were reported in late 2024, notably affecting several management positions.
