SentinelOne lays off 8% of workforce as AI push and weak guidance send shares down 12%

SentinelOne is cutting 8% of its workforce as the cybersecurity company shifts more resources toward artificial intelligence and data infrastructure, joining a growing list of tech firms reshaping their businesses around AI.

The layoffs sent SentinelOne shares down 12% after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the current quarter and full year. The Mountain View, California-based firm said it expects quarterly revenue between $289 million and $291 million, below analyst expectations of $292 million, according to LSEG data.

The company said in a securities filing that it expects to take a one-time $25 million charge tied to the layoffs. SentinelOne had more than 3,000 employees at the end of April.

“On May 28, 2026, SentinelOne, Inc. (the “Company”) announced a restructuring plan (the “Plan”) to further streamline the Company’s organizational structure, improve efficiencies, and concentrate investments across high-yielding growth areas including AI, Data, Cloud and Endpoint, while continuing to advance the Company’s ongoing commitment to profitable growth. The Plan includes a reduction of the Company’s current full-time employees by approximately 8% of the Company’s full-time employees,” SentinelOne said in the securities filings with the SEC.

“This is not a reactive measure; it is a deliberate evolution to reduce complexity, raise the performance bar, and build a leaner, more agile SentinelOne,” CEO Tomer Weingarten told analysts during Thursday’s earnings call, CNBC reported.

Weingarten said the company has spent the last several months restructuring teams and has already seen “meaningful productivity” gains from increased AI adoption inside the business.

The cuts arrive as tech companies across the industry rethink staffing levels under pressure to spend more aggressively on AI infrastructure, automation tools, and data systems. New AI software is reducing the need for some operational roles, especially across engineering support, customer operations, and internal workflows.

SentinelOne is far from alone.

Earlier this week, Israel-based web development platform Wix cut roughly 20% of its workforce, citing AI shifts and pressure from the surging Israeli shekel. Cisco reduced headcount by nearly 5% this month. Block reportedly cut about half its workforce in February, and Atlassian eliminated around 1,600 jobs in March.

The latest cuts mark a sharp contrast with SentinelOne’s earlier growth years. TechStartups first covered SentinelOne in 2019 after the company raised $120 million in Series D funding to accelerate expansion and product development.

Founded in 2013 by Almog Cohen and Tomer Weingarten, SentinelOne built its reputation around autonomous endpoint security software that uses artificial intelligence to detect unusual activity across enterprise networks. Its platform protects laptops, mobile devices, and enterprise systems from cyberattacks through automated threat detection and response.

Back then, AI was largely positioned as a competitive advantage inside cybersecurity products. Now it is reshaping the companies that build those tools, too.

The market reaction suggests investors want more than AI promises. They want stronger growth numbers to match the spending. SentinelOne reaffirmed its full-year revenue forecast between $1.195 billion and $1.205 billion, falling short of Wall Street expectations of $1.21 billion.

For many cybersecurity companies, AI has become both an opportunity and a cost problem. Firms are pouring money into AI models, infrastructure, and internal automation at the same time customers are demanding proof that those investments will translate into revenue growth and lower operating costs.

SentinelOne’s latest move shows how quickly that pressure is spreading across the software industry.