Cyber company Axonius, one of Israeli tech's best-known unicorns, is preparing to lay off 66 employees, 46 of them at its development center in Israel. Calcalist first reported the news. According to the report, the company employs 207 people in Israel, so about 22% have been summoned to pre-dismissal hearings. Overall, it amounts to about 9% of the company's roughly 720 employees worldwide.
The reason the company gives is AI: according to the report, Axonius is rebuilding its engineering organization around a new approach to software development based on AI tools. The company said each employee is being notified individually and offered support in the transition.
This is Axonius's third round of layoffs within a year. In November 2025 about 100 employees were laid off in Israel and the US, and in February 2026 about 40, mostly in marketing and sales, only seven of them in Israel. This time the picture is reversed: most of those laid off are in Israel, and most are developers, the employees who until recently were an Israeli software company's most important asset.
Axonius, which built a platform that gives organizations a full picture of every device, user and piece of software on their network, raised hundreds of millions of dollars and was valued at $2.6 billion in its last round. For years it was seen as an IPO candidate. But three rounds of layoffs in a year, alongside a CEO change, tell of a company trying to cut costs ahead of its next move.
And the new reason, 'AI-based development,' is becoming a pattern. Many Israeli companies explain cuts to developers by saying AI tools let fewer engineers do the same work. That may be true in some cases. But it is hard to ignore that the explanation is especially convenient for a company that needs to cut, and that it sounds better to investors than 'growth has slowed.'
