Affirm chief executive Max Levchin used the company's fiscal third-quarter earnings call to draw a sharp line between his lender and a growing list of US technology firms that have framed artificial intelligence as a reason to cut headcount.
"We are not planning AI-related layoffs, full stop," Levchin told investors as Affirm reported revenue of US$1.04 billion, a 33% year-on-year jump, alongside net income of US$102 million on US$0.30 of diluted earnings per share. Gross merchandise value rose 35% to US$11.6 billion.
The Affirm boss went further than a one-line denial. "I don't mean to belittle anyone out there making the right or what they believe to be the right decisions for their company," he said. "Long before AI tools came along, we had tooled ourselves up to be very efficient. These tools are giving us rocket boosters, wings, whatever metaphor you want, and we're very happy for it. But at least for now and as far as the eye can see anyway, it is just a thing we're going to keep using to ship more."
The comments land in a quarter where rivals have used AI productivity claims to justify large reductions in force. Coinbase cut roughly 700 staff earlier in May with a memo from chief executive Brian Armstrong pitching "AI-native pods", while digital bank Chime told investors that AI now writes 84% of its code and Australian-listed Sezzle put the same figure at around 80%.
Affirm's underlying numbers gave Levchin room to take a different stance. Active customers grew to 26.8 million and transactions per active customer rose 20%. Active merchants climbed 44% to 515,000. The Affirm Card, the company's debit-style product, more than doubled active cardholders to 4.4 million and saw GMV jump 146% to US$2.1 billion. Thirty-day delinquencies sat at 2.8%.
Chief operating officer Michael Linford struck an unusually bullish tone on funding access. "The funding market broadly remains exceptionally constructive for us," he said. "We're kind of out of adjectives to describe just how great the execution has been." Linford added that "the ABS markets are giving us a resounding vote of confidence", a reference to Affirm's growing reliance on asset-backed securities to finance its loan book.
The reaction in the stock market told a different story. Affirm shares slid in late trading despite the beat-and-raise, with investors weighing slowing US consumer credit data and a wider sell-off in fintech names. Analysts on the call pressed on the durability of the merchant card economics and on private credit competition, with management arguing the unit economics are improving as the Affirm Card scales.
Levchin's stance also positions Affirm against a broader Silicon Valley shift. JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon told shareholders this week that "no city has a divine right" to financial jobs as the bank moves 6,000 roles out of New York, and OpenAI and Anthropic continue to publish productivity research used by enterprises to justify cuts. By framing AI as a tool to ship more rather than employ fewer, Affirm is betting the buy-now-pay-later category still has enough top-line growth to absorb the people side.
For now, the message to staff is unambiguous. Levchin said the company would treat AI gains as a chance to widen the moat against larger banks and card networks rather than to thin the engineering bench. Whether the share price agrees is a question for the next quarter.