Black Thursday: Israeli tech reels as Wix, Amdocs, Rapyd and SentinelOne cut jobs
Layoffs across major Israeli tech companies highlight mounting pressure from AI disruption, currency shifts, and slowing growth.
Thursday marked a sharp escalation in the wave of layoffs sweeping Israeli high-tech, with Amdocs, Wix, Rapyd, SentinelOne and Minute Media all either announcing or being reported to be planning major job cuts within hours of each other. Amdocs is set to lay off about 3,000 employees, including hundreds in Israel, as part of a broader restructuring. Wix announced a 20% reduction in its workforce, amounting to roughly 1,000 jobs. Fintech unicorn Rapyd is undergoing an organizational overhaul expected to result in hundreds of layoffs, while cyber company SentinelOne is also preparing to cut hundreds of positions, including dozens in Israel, according to estimates. Israeli media-tech firm Minute Media has likewise revealed that it will be carrying out its own round of job reductions.
The common denominator across these companies is the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, but the reality of the local high-tech industry shows that AI is only part of the story. On the surface, it is easy, and convenient, to attribute the wave of layoffs to the AI revolution. The companies themselves are quick to highlight their “adoption of AI” and their transition to more efficient business models.
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Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami (left) and Amdocs CEO Shimie Hortig.
(Alan Tzatzkin Yossi Tzavkar)
In practice, the technology is shaking up the industry from two directions. On the one hand, there is an internal impact: companies are discovering they can become more efficient and perform many tasks with fewer employees. On the other hand, there is an external impact from customers, who can now perform tasks independently using AI tools and rely less on traditional software products.
In a letter to Rapyd employees, for example, it was explicitly stated that the company is now becoming a “company operated by AI” and therefore it is restructuring accordingly.
However, artificial intelligence also provides a convenient justification for management. When companies attribute layoffs to AI, they signal to investors and the market that they are innovative, aware of industry shifts, and taking steps toward efficiency. But beneath the technological narrative, a deeper financial reality is emerging.
A significant additional driver of the layoffs is the local currency. The strong shekel has made Israeli high-tech engineers among the most expensive workers in the world. Most high-tech companies and startups operate on a model based on dollar revenues and dollar-based capital raising, while their main expenses, employee salaries in Israel, are paid in shekels. This creates a structural gap: companies are forced to burn significantly more dollars to fund shekel-denominated salaries.
This is nothing less than a perfect storm. These underlying pressures were already present, but two main catalysts triggered the current wave: First, the mass layoffs by Silicon Valley giants such as Meta and Intuit provided local companies with both a “signal” and legitimacy, if global tech leaders are cutting jobs, Israeli companies feel justified in doing the same.
Second, many companies waited for clearer signals from the Bank of Israel regarding interest rates and currency direction. When it became clear that despite an interest-rate cut the shekel remained strong, the “wait-and-see” approach collapsed. The realization that this was not a temporary phenomenon, and not easily controlled through monetary policy, pushed management teams toward painful and decisive action.
The result is that Israel’s high-tech labor market is shifting toward an employers’ market, where laid-off workers may find it more difficult to secure alternative positions. Still, the picture is not entirely negative.
The local market remains strong, and demand for high-quality talent persists. However, the balance of power is changing. If in the recent past defense industries were considered less attractive compared to consumer-facing tech companies or startups, today they are experiencing a surge in demand and urgently need skilled workers.
The labor market equilibrium is shifting. Although the timing is difficult, this does not necessarily represent a crisis for Israeli high-tech, but rather a test of flexibility and adaptation to a new economic and technological reality. The final word has not yet been spoken, and more layoffs may still follow.
