The Denominator

Block published the most concrete AI productivity metric in corporate history. Two million dollars of gross profit per employee. The number has a denominator. Block's CFO just published the most concrete AI productivity metric in corporate history. Gross profit per employee: five hundred thousand dollars in 2019. Seven hundred fifty thousand in 2024. One million in 2025. Two million projected for 2026. Four times in seven years. Two times in one. The doubling is the number every other CFO is circling. Two million dollars of gross profit per remaining employee. The figure that transforms a payments company into a proof of concept for AI-driven restructuring. But the number has a denominator. The Arithmetic Block guided for twelve point two billion dollars in gross profit for 2026 — eighteen percent growth over 2025. That is the numerator. The company went from roughly ten thousand employees to six thousand. That is the denominator. Divide twelve point two billion by six thousand, and yo