Chime layoffs: about 150 job cuts, 10% of staff, as its CEO says smaller teams that use AI ship faster

Chime is cutting about 10 percent of its workforce, roughly 150 employees, in layoffs its chief executive tied to smaller teams that use AI. Banking Dive reported on 31 July 2026 that the fintech, which counted about 1,500 employees at the end of 2025, made the job cuts to take advantage of AI efficiencies and to innovate with smaller teams, quoting a memo from chief executive Chris Britt: "AI is changing what's possible but requires new skills." The memo also said that "in some areas, that means a flatter structure and smaller squads", and that more teams are being brought back into the office. On the second-quarter earnings call on 5 August Britt said "we recently announced an internal reorganization that will reduce our workforce by approximately 10%" and that "smaller teams with fewer layers that use AI are shipping faster and getting even more work done". Finance chief Matthew Newcomb said the company expects to keep payroll costs flat against 2026 and to book $16 million to $20 million of restructuring charges in the third quarter. Chime credits AI with making smaller teams more productive, but it has not said AI is doing the work of the people who are leaving, and flattening layers and the office return are named alongside it, so this headcount reduction is an article and not a counted AI job loss. The employer-attributed AI job cuts on record are in the AI layoffs tracker on this site.