Uber Technologies has laid off 3,300 employees, or 10 percent of its workforce, marking the largest reduction in the ride-hailing company's headcount since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a memo to employees on Wednesday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the cuts were part of broader efforts to reduce layers of management and "simplify team structures" as the company looks to "build the autonomous future" and "invest even more in drivers, couriers and merchants."
The company will also halve the number of "micro-teams" where managers had only one or two direct reports, according to the memo. "A leaner organization will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating," Khosrowshahi stated.
Khosrowshahi also told employees that the company is pushing for most workers to return to the office, declaring, "going forward, only ~1% of employees will be remote." This decision has sparked discontent among staff who prefer flexible work arrangements.
The latest round of cuts comes just weeks after the ride-sharing giant eliminated 10 percent of its customer service roles as it embraced artificial intelligence (AI), according to Bloomberg. The San Francisco-based company also announced a hiring slowdown in May, attributing it to AI as well.
The cuts come amid pressure in its robotaxi unit. Uber plans to invest $10 billion to build its presence. However, the company has hit speed bumps amid growing tensions with other players in the space.
While Waymo operates driverless cars through Uber in Atlanta, Georgia, and Austin, Texas, it is expanding into other markets without them, as Tesla also makes inroads into the robotaxi market. Tesla is set to hold an event for its robotaxi Cybercab in Austin on Thursday.
Uber's layoffs come despite strong growth at the company, which Khosrowshahi touched on in the memo. In the most recent annual report, Uber's revenue jumped 18 percent between 2024 and 2025 to $52 billion. While growth in the second quarter of 2026 moderated, revenue jumped 12 percent to $14.2 billion, according to its latest earnings.
Khosrowshahi was paid 360 times more than the average Uber employee in 2025, according to the AFL-CIO's Executive Paywatch Tracker. Still, on Wall Street, Uber stock has struggled this year, down 8 percent year-to-date. On Wednesday, it was up more than 1.6 percent in midday trading.
According to Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking tech industry job cuts, more than 123,000 employees have been laid off at nearly 290 companies across the tech sector in 2026 alone.
Source: www.aljazeera.com