Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says cuts are part of ride-hailing giant’s drive towards ‘autonomous future.’
Uber has announced that it is laying off 3,300 employees, or 10 percent of its workforce, and ceasing operations in Nigeria and Uganda.
The job cuts announced on Wednesday mark the largest reduction in the ride-hailing company’s headcount since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
In a memo to employees, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the cuts were aimed at reducing layers of management and “simplifying team structures” as the company looks to “build the autonomous future,” as well as “invest even more in drivers, couriers and merchants”.
Uber confirmed in response to Al Jazeera’s inquiries on Thursday that it had exited Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, and Uganda with immediate effect.
“This decision is limited strictly to these two markets and does not impact our operations across the rest of the continent,” a company spokesperson said.
“Our immediate priority is supporting drivers, riders and local team members throughout this transition. Uber remains deeply committed to sub-Saharan Africa, where we continue to see robust growth and long-term opportunity.”
In his memo, Khosrowshahi said Uber would also halve the number of “micro-teams” in which managers only have one or two direct employees.
“A leaner organisation will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions and more time spent building rather than coordinating,” Khosrowshahi said.
Khosrowshahi also said the company would push for most of its workers to return to the office, saying that “going forward, only ~1% of employees will be remote”.
The latest round of cuts comes just weeks after the ride-sharing giant eliminated 10 percent of its customer service roles as it embraced artificial intelligence (AI), according to Bloomberg, which first reported the July cuts.
The San Francisco-based business also announced a hiring slowdown in May, which it attributed to AI as well.
The cuts come amid pressure in its robotaxi unit.
Uber plans to invest $10bn into building its presence. However, the company has hit speed bumps amid growing tensions with other companies in the space.
While Waymo operates driverless cars through Uber in both Atlanta, Georgia, and Austin, Texas, it is expanding into other markets without them as Tesla also makes inroads into the robotaxi market.
Tesla is set to hold an event for its robotaxi Cybercab in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.
Uber’s layoffs come despite strong growth at the company, which Khosrowshahi touched on in the memo.
In the most recent annual report, Uber’s revenue jumped by 18 percent between 2024 and 2025 to $52bn.
While growth in the second quarter of 2026 moderated, revenue jumped 12 percent to $14.2bn, according to its most recent earnings released last month.
Khosrowshahi was paid 360 times more than the average employee at Uber in 2025, according to the the AFL-CIO’s Executive Paywatch Tracker.
Still, on Wall Street, Uber stock has struggled this year, and is down 8 percent for the year. On Wednesday, it was up more than 1.6 percent in midday trading.
According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job cuts in the tech industry, more than 128,000 employees have been laid off at nearly 290 companies across the tech sector in 2026 alone.