Opendoor chairman Keith Rabois says he will cut up to 85% of 'bloated' workforce as he presses turnaround

Opendoor’s newly installed chairman, Keith Rabois, said Friday he plans to cut as many as 85% of the company’s roughly 1,400 employees, calling the online home-buying firm “bloated” and saying it only needs about 200 people to operate.

Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Rabois said, “There’s 1,400 employees at Opendoor. I don’t know what most of them do. We don’t need more than 200 of them.” He criticized the company’s embrace of remote work and said Opendoor’s culture was “broken” and must return to in-person collaboration. He also said the company would move away from what he described as a “DEI path.”

Rabois returned this week after an activist campaign led by himself and hedge-fund manager Eric Jackson resulted in the installation of former Shopify executive Kaz Nejatian as chief executive. Nejatian replaced Carrie Wheeler, who resigned Aug. 15 after three years as chief executive; Wheeler said in a post on X that accelerating her succession plan was "the best thing I can do for Opendoor now."

The leadership shakeup coincided with dramatic swings in Opendoor’s stock. Shares surged 78% on Thursday following the announcements of Rabois’s return and Nejatian’s appointment, and then dropped more than 12% on Friday. The stock has been highly volatile this year, rising nearly 500% in 2025 even after collapsing 99% from its peak following the company’s 2020 SPAC listing.

Investors and retail traders have driven much of the recent rally, with Jackson publicly urging others to buy the stock and calling it a potential “100-bagger.” But investor unrest simmered after Opendoor reported recent earnings that showed declining home acquisitions and offered no clear sign of an imminent turnaround in its core iBuyer business.

Opendoor buys homes directly from sellers for cash, makes required repairs, and resells them, while also providing services such as mortgage lending, title, escrow and warranties. The company has developed additional products and partnerships, including a program called Cash Plus and local agent collaborations, and relies heavily on proprietary algorithms and artificial intelligence to price homes and manage risk.

Compensation at the company has been comparatively high for a real estate technology firm, a factor Rabois cited implicitly while criticizing the company’s cost structure. Levels.fyi lists Opendoor software-engineer pay ranging from about $180,000 at entry level to $728,000 at senior levels, with a reported median near $240,000; 6figr estimates average total compensation at roughly $287,000 and top roles as high as $747,000. Comparably reports lower companywide averages, with an overall figure near $143,000 and departmental medians in operations and product of about $170,000 and $177,000, respectively.

Rabois, a member of Silicon Valley’s so-called PayPal Mafia, has a track record of activist involvement in technology companies and has been outspoken about restructuring and cost-cutting at portfolio companies. His remarks Friday framed deep staff reductions as necessary to return Opendoor to the original model of in-person innovation and tighter operational discipline.

The operational changes Rabois is proposing could have broad implications for Opendoor’s ability to manage home acquisitions, renovation pipelines and integrated services, but neither the company nor Nejatian has yet outlined a detailed restructuring plan or timeline. Opendoor’s recent earnings and public filings show the firm has faced pressure on acquisitions and margins as housing-market dynamics have shifted.

Opendoor’s spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Post has sought comment from Opendoor.