Sometimes a company doesn't just tweak its strategy. Sometimes it blows the whole thing up and starts over. That's what's happening at Opendoor Technologies (OPEN), according to investor Eric Jackson, who's been one of the stock's most vocal champions this year.
Jackson appeared on Natalie Brunell's podcast this week with some eye-popping details about what he's calling Opendoor's "version 2.0" era. The short version? The iBuying platform is going through a full-scale reset driven by artificial intelligence, and it's about to look radically different from the company that was, in Jackson's words, "sort of like asleep at the wheel" until recently.
When AI Replaces Almost Everyone
Here's the headline number: Opendoor had 1,400 employees not long ago. Under new CEO Kaz Nejatian, who previously served as COO of Shopify (SHOP), the company plans to cut somewhere between 80% and 90% of that workforce. We're talking about replacing humans with AI at a scale that would make even the most aggressive tech CEO pause.
And it's already happening. Jackson pointed out that the process of selling one home used to involve 11 people at Opendoor. Now? It takes one person. That shift happened "just in the last month," according to Jackson, which gives you a sense of how quickly this transformation is moving.
The goal isn't just cost-cutting for its own sake. Opendoor is trying to create something genuinely different in real estate: a streamlined process where sellers get cash offers and credit lines in the same app session, then immediately start shopping for their next home. The company is targeting "three-day closings," which would be a massive departure from the weeks-long slog that defines traditional real estate transactions.
From Meme Stock to Wall Street Validation
Jackson has been instrumental in driving renewed attention to Opendoor, helping spark a retail-driven rally that pushed the stock up 1,425% this year. His personal price target? A wild $500 per share, which represents a 6,326% upside from current levels. That's the kind of number that makes you wonder if he's joking, but Jackson seems dead serious about the company's potential.
More importantly, Wall Street is starting to pay attention too. JPMorgan analyst Dae K Lee recently slapped an "Overweight" rating on the stock and raised the firm's price target to $8 per share. That's nowhere close to Jackson's moonshot target, but it represents a 2.8% upside and, more significantly, validation of the "major transformation" thesis.
Lee's team is projecting Opendoor will hit around $8 billion in revenue by 2027, with contribution margins landing in the 5% to 7% range. The forecast hinges on the company achieving sustainable profitability through these structural changes, which means investors are betting that AI can actually deliver what Nejatian is promising.
The Stock Reality
Shares of Opendoor (OPEN) closed at $7.78 on Wednesday, up 0.52%, though they slipped 0.77% in after-hours trading. The stock has strong momentum indicators in both medium and long-term trends, suggesting the market is buying into the transformation story, at least for now.
Whether Opendoor can actually pull off this AI-powered reinvention remains to be seen. Cutting 90% of your workforce is a bold move. Making it work is another thing entirely. But if the company can deliver on three-day closings and seamless seller experiences, it might just change how people think about buying and selling homes. And that would be worth watching, even if it never hits Jackson's $500 target.
