BlackRock Cuts 200 Jobs Despite Record $14 Trillion in Assets: Calls It 'Ordinary Discipline'

Layoffs are raging across the US tech sector amid the emergence of AI, with Mag 7 firms like Amazon and Meta Platforms downsizing their global workforces by tens of thousands of employees since 2025.

For instance, Meta Platforms is among US companies that reduced its global workforce by 8,000 jobs in May or about 10% of the company. Many of these jobs are directly related to AI, and some Meta employees reportedly claimed that working on 'soul-crushing jobs' at the company's new Applied AI division feels like 'it's literally the gulag.'

However, AI is now rapidly making its way into the financial sector, which could be one of the reasons the largest asset manager in the world has now decided to trim its workforce, citing it as a routine action.

Larry Fink's BlackRock reportedly completed another round of layoffs; the third in 18 months, affecting 200 employees this time across investments, operations, and technology. The layoffs also include jobs from BlackRock's private financing branch, which acquired HPS Investment Partners a year ago for $12 billion.

People familiar with the matter told media outlets that the action is 'ordinary discipline' of an evolving company, adding that the asset manager is always assessing staffing roles as part of efforts to best serve its clients.

BlackRock, which has $14 trillion in assets under management, resumed job cuts in 2023 after years of pause during the pandemic. In the last two rounds of layoffs in 2025, the company has claimed to trim about 1% of its global workforce on each occasion.

Meanwhile, Fink had talked about his 'preference' for 'a quieter, continual cycle of rightsizing' instead of a major companywide organisational restructuring.

BlackRock Layoffs Despite $24 Billion Revenue in 2025

In 2025, BlackRock generated net income of $5.6 billion on revenue of $24.2 billion. The company paid $3.4 billion in dividends to investors and repurchased $1.6 billion of its common stock during the financial year. In 2025, note that the CEO's total compensation stood at a whopping $45 million.

'We have normalized taking away people's income and security in order to make a profitable company SLIGHTLY more profitable. And we by and large are fine with it. That's all. I'm tired,' New World Labs founder Jillian O'Malior said in a late Monday post on LinkedIn.

As BlackRock continues to expand its outreach through acquisitions and broadens its product offerings, senior management appears focused on making sure that staffing levels align with dynamic business needs. The latest job cuts could imply that the firm is prioritising operational efficiency while investing in segments viewed as critical for long-term growth.

Other major financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have also decided to reduce their respective global headcounts. Morgan Stanley had announced in early March that it would downsize its headcount by 2,500 jobs or about 3% of its workforce, covering some of its major business segments.

Bloomberg had reported that the regularity of the workforce reductions at BlackRock is gradually reshaping company culture that historically expanded via growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. As BlackRock continues to integrate acquired businesses and bolster its investment capabilities, workforce reviews are likely to remain part of its operating model.