{"text":[[{"start":7.55,"text":"Dozens of US-listed companies have tried to jump on the AI bandwagon by rebranding their businesses. Most enjoyed an initial valuation boost, but the AI lustre did not last."}],[{"start":19.25,"text":"Former sports shoe company Allbirds is among the largest to pivot, officially changing its name to Smartbird last month as part of a shift from selling footwear to focusing on high-end servers equipped with AI chips. "}],[{"start":31.4,"text":"At least 27 other groups in sectors from cancer treatment to gold mining have changed their names since 2023 to add AI-related terms or signal a new focus on the technology. "}],[{"start":42.45,"text":"Investors’ interest in AI has powered a surge in tech stocks, and many of the companies that announced AI rebrands experienced an initial share price surge. But most of the groups have failed to sustain their valuation gains, an FT analysis has found. "}],[{"start":57.45,"text":"The combined market capitalisation of the rebranded companies increased by $8.7bn, or 106 per cent, at their post-rebrand peak compared with the week before the announcements. "}],[{"start":69.85000000000001,"text":"However, more than half of those gains had evaporated by the end of last month, with seven of the companies now having a lower market valuation than before they announced they were renaming themselves or moving into AI. "}],[{"start":82.15,"text":"Such name changes could indicate that companies are chasing investor interest in a buzzy sector as a way to extract short-term gains, said Owen Lamont, a portfolio manager at Acadian Asset Management."}],[{"start":94.65,"text":"“The American stock market has become more retail-dominated and more affected by social media and people using trading apps,” he said. “These name changes are targeting retail investors . . . Maybe it doesn’t work permanently, but it works a little.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":109.05000000000001,"text":"Most of the companies are microcap or over-the-counter “pink sheet” stocks, several of which had been struggling before they rebranded."}],[{"start":116.65,"text":"Hoth Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing cancer treatments, changed its name to Rocket One and announced a new focus on semiconductor technology and the “orbital economy” in May, two months after its auditor raised “substantial doubt” over its ability to continue as a going concern. "}],[{"start":134.70000000000002,"text":"Myseum, a social network that became Myseum.AI in April, reported revenues of just $550 for 2025. One pink-sheet stock has changed its name four times, launching as a golfing business in 2007 and later operating a gold mine in Honduras before embarking on data centre construction as BluSky AI in January 2025. "}],[{"start":158.25000000000003,"text":"In the UK, consumer finance fintech Investment Evolution Credit changed its name to Amazing AI in May 2025 but delisted in January this year."}],[{"start":168.35000000000002,"text":"A number of former cryptocurrency miners have also rebranded. Cipher Digital has increased its market capitalisation by about 50 per cent to almost $10bn since rebranding from Cipher Mining in February to refocus on data centre construction."}],[{"start":183.20000000000002,"text":"Brett Knoblauch, a crypto analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, said pivoting to sell in-demand grid connections and GPUs to hyperscalers — the corporate groups spending billions on AI infrastructure — made business sense for crypto groups. "}],[{"start":197.85000000000002,"text":"“The investor appetite to own AI data centre companies is much greater than the investor appetite to own bitcoin mining companies . . . the entire investment thesis for those companies is [now] the pivot.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":210.35000000000002,"text":"Companies that rebranded during previous tech booms also increased their valuations. US stocks that added “com” to their name during the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s earned excess returns of 72 per cent within 10 days of announcing the change, an influential 2000 study found."}],[{"start":228.25000000000003,"text":"Other companies pivoted during the cryptocurrency boom of the late 2010s, including Long Island Iced Tea, a beverage company whose share price rose 500 per cent after it became Long Blockchain in 2017. In 2021 it was engulfed in an insider trading investigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revoking registration of its securities. "}],[{"start":252.35000000000002,"text":"“Crypto exuberance” in the 2010s led to substantial share price increases for renamed companies but those that rebranded also tended to suffer a short-term hit to profits, according to a 2021 paper by researchers at Zurich university."}],[{"start":267.25,"text":"However, an FT analysis found that, so far, the AI boom was not inspiring more pivots than before, based on industry codes listed in companies’ annual reports. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":277.55,"text":"The SEC has begun explicitly targeting what it calls “AI washing”. Since 2024 it has taken action against several investment advisers and tech start-ups for misleading investors about how they were using the technology."}],[{"start":291.7,"text":"“There’s no bright-line rule for a name change or a rebrand — but if adding ‘AI’ to a company’s name signals a business line or capability that doesn’t exist, that’s the kind of statement likely to draw scrutiny from the SEC,” said Sean Fulton, a lawyer in DLA Piper’s AI practice. "}],[{"start":308.4,"text":"Nadia Carlsten, chief executive of Smartbird, said she would characterise its pivot as “the creation of a new AI infrastructure company rather than an AI rebrand”, adding that the business is under new management, has stronger finances and is committed to its strategy long term."}],[{"start":325.25,"text":"Lamont at Acadian Asset Management said: “Companies cater to current investor sentiment. If investors like things that have AI in the name, the companies will cater to that, and if that changes, they’ll cater to the other thing.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":346.55,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783822840_4820.mp3"}