Block
Category: AI in Fintech
Public US fintech company (Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL) whose in-house AI research lab built Dessa, a full-duplex speech-to-speech model trained only on human conversation audio. Block was founded in 2009. The company is led by Jack Dorsey. Based in Oakland, United States. Team size: 500+. Latest round: Post-IPO. Key investors include Khosla Ventures.
- Founded
- 2009
- Headquarters
- Oakland, United States
- Team size
- 500+
Value proposition
Block provides commerce and financial services for sellers and consumers and is increasingly rebuilding them with AI at the core. Its Dessa model aims to deliver natural, emotion-aware real-time voice interaction without converting speech to text.
Products and solutions
Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL, Bitcoin initiatives, Goose (open-source AI agent), Dessa full-duplex speech-to-speech model (waitlist and researcher early access only, no API, app or pricing yet)
Unique value
Block describes Dessa as the first AI capable of realistic live conversation that was trained only on human speech, with no text and no pretrained models. It is full-duplex, handles emotion natively, and runs locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max or better.
Target customer
Merchants and sellers (Square); consumers (Cash App, Afterpay); musicians (TIDAL). Dessa early access is limited to AI safety researchers.
Industries served
Payments, consumer finance, buy-now-pay-later, music streaming, conversational voice AI research
Technology advantage
Block has a large fintech ecosystem: about 4M Square sellers and 58M Cash App monthly transacting actives. Its small AI lab was founded by former members of Dessa, the Toronto deep learning startup, and has built generative speech models for more than 8 years. The lab trained Dessa on a single NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and reports directly to Jack Dorsey.
How they differentiate
Dessa is trained purely on speech, with no text and no pretrained LLM backbone. It is full-duplex with natural backchanneling, handles emotion and prosody natively, and runs locally on consumer hardware.
Main competitors
Voice AI: OpenAI (Realtime / GPT-Live voice), Kyutai (Moshi), Sesame, Google Gemini Live as a further reference point. Fintech: PayPal, Stripe, Toast.
Key partnerships
NVIDIA (Dessa was trained on a GB200 NVL72), AI safety researchers given early access to Dessa
Major milestones
2009: founded as Square by Jack Dorsey. 2015: IPO. Later rebranded as Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ), acquired Afterpay and TIDAL. 2026: cut about 40% of staff in an AI-centric restructuring. October 2026: unveiled the Dessa full-duplex speech model.
Growth metrics
2025 net revenue about $24.19B; gross profit about $10.2B (up ~18% YoY). About 4M Square sellers and 58M Cash App monthly transacting actives. Square shipped 130 features in H1 2026, more than 3x H1 2025.
Market positioning
Roughly $41B fintech company repositioning as an 'intelligence company'. It cut about 40% of staff in 2026 to rebuild around AI and runs a frontier-research voice AI lab.
Geographic focus
Global, primarily US, with operations in Australia, the UK, Canada and Japan. The input stub listed DE, but the verified entity is US-based.
About Jack Dorsey
Co-founder and former CEO of Twitter. Co-founded Square (now Block) in 2009 and has led it since; current title is Block Head and Chairperson.
Latest news about Block
More AI in Fintech companies
Official website: https://block.xyz