Opendoor CEO Shuts India Operations, Lays Off Nearly 250 Jobs: CEO Says Work 'Belongs' in America

Opendoor Technologies is winding down its India operations and parting ways with nearly 250 staff members after chief executive Kaz Nejatian told the team that the company's day-to-day work is better suited to its American customers.

Nejatian set out the decision in a note shared with employees on 10 June and later posted to X.

'Today we began to say goodbye to our colleagues in India as we wind down our India operations,' he wrote. 'Our customers are in America, and that's where our operational work belongs.'

The home-buying firm built up its Indian team to handle manual back-office tasks across what Nejatian called fragmented internal systems. That rationale, he argued, no longer holds.

'When we launched Opendoor 2.0 a few months ago, Opendoor had nearly 250 employees in India. Over the last few months, some of these jobs have been relocated back to the United States,' the memo read. The remaining India-based roles are now being closed, although Nejatian said a small group would stay on temporarily to hand over key workstreams.

Departing staff are being offered transition packages covering severance, outplacement support, and other help. Nejatian was careful to keep the move separate from any judgement on performance. 'This decision is not a reflection of the quality of their work,' he wrote, adding that he would recommend the affected employees 'to anyone hiring'.

Investors Cheer a Leaner Opendoor

Wall Street liked what it heard. Opendoor shares (OPEN) climbed roughly 8% on Wednesday, Stocktwits noted, a rare bright spot for a stock that has shed about a fifth of its value since the start of the year. The shares closed near £3.19 ($4.31) earlier in the week and sit well below their 52-week high of £8.05 ($10.87).

The reaction fits a turnaround pitch built on cost discipline and automation. Nejatian told staff that 'after today, Opendoor 2.0 will be a much smaller company by headcount, but a much larger company by impact,' crediting AI tools and tighter systems for letting a smaller US team take on more.

There are early figures behind the optimism. The company's contribution margin reached 4.4% in the first quarter of 2026, its strongest reading since mid-2024, while aged inventory fell to 10% from 51% six months earlier. Opendoor also turned positive on a trailing 12-month basis for operating cash flow, generating around £393 million ($531 million), even as it stayed unprofitable on the bottom line.

A Headcount Shrinking Since 2022

The India closure caps a long contraction. Opendoor employed close to 1,042 people at the end of 2025, down from 1,470 a year earlier and roughly 2,570 in 2022, Stocktwits said, citing Macrotrends data.

The push to go leaner has come from the very top. Co-founder and chairman Keith Rabois, who rejoined the board last year alongside Nejatian's appointment, was blunt about the company's size in a CNBC interview that aired in September 2025.

'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 told the broadcaster.

Nejatian, a former Shopify chief operating officer, became CEO in 2025 after Carrie Wheeler stepped down under investor pressure. His arrival, backed by a £30 million ($40 million) investment from Khosla Ventures and co-founder Eric Wu, ushered in an aggressive reset around in-person work and artificial intelligence.

Sentiment on the stock remains split. Five of nine analysts rate OPEN a 'hold', with two 'buy' and two 'sell' calls, per Koyfin data cited by Stocktwits, and retail traders were broadly cautious on the news.

For the rest of the workforce, Nejatian framed the cut as a step forward rather than a retreat. 'Our priorities and direction have not changed, and Opendoor is in a strong position and getting stronger,' he wrote, before closing with a familiar rallying line: 'Let's fix America's housing problem.'