Opendoor (-12%) tried to pull the old Silicon Valley “say AI and pray” trick… and got bodied for it.

During its latest earnings call, the real estate tech company (which once thought flipping houses with algorithms was a revolutionary idea) suddenly decided it’s no longer a home flipper at all. Nope. It’s now an “AI company.” I sh*t you not… the same people who once thought buying your neighbor’s ranch-style house sight unseen was a business model want us all to believe they are the future of artificial intelligence.

CEO Kaz Nejatian, barely a month into the job, came out swinging with one of the ballsiest rebrands we’ve seen since Zuck tried to sell us on living in a $1 million cartoon apartment. “We are refounding Opendoor as a software and AI company,” he said, before explaining they’ve “returned to the office” and “eliminated reliance on consultants.” Translation: “The free cold brew’s back, and McKinsey’s out.”

Nejatian, who came over from Shopify, said the new Opendoor will be powered by code, not contractors. He even dropped the line, “Our leverage comes from engineers writing code.” Which I have to give him credit sounds inspiring… until you remember this company lost $33 million last quarter trying to sell houses during a real estate recession. It’s like saying, “We’re not a restaurant anymore… we’re a culinary tech platform,” right after the health inspector shuts you down and your entire kitchen staff gives you the middle finger.

(Source: Investing.com)

Still, Kaz might be onto something. Opendoor’s been one of the year’s meme darlings, with traders pumping it like a late-stage crypto coin every time someone on Reddit mentions “AI housing.” And hey, it worked for a minute. The stock jumped in after-hours trading… until investors actually read the report and saw Opendoor was trying to cover up the stink with AI perfume. That’s when it crashed nearly 24% in the blink of an eye.

But back to their genius AI strategy… co-founders Eric Wu and Keith Rabois are back on the board, with Rabois taking the chairman role like a dad showing up after hearing the kids burned down the house. The plan, supposedly, is to stop “spray-and-pray” marketing (so long, TikTok ads) and start acting like a tech company again. They’re calling it a “decisive break from the past.” Analysts all around Wall Street are calling it “copium.”

Opendoor swears it’ll hit breakeven by 2026, and maybe it’s set for another legendary meme run. But for now, the story’s the same: fewer homes sold, more money lost, and a CEO praying that putting “AI” in the press release gets them another quarter of grace.

So yeah, Opendoor wants to be the “ChatGPT of real estate.” But until it can code a profit, it’s still just a house flipper holding a big bag of losses (and regret).

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.