Hark AI Free Pizza Giveaway Crushes Servers and Overlods App
American AI startup Hark launched a one million dollar free pizza promotion via its Hark Pro assistant, resulting in massive traffic, system crashes, and unintended charges.
Hark AI Pizza Giveaway Stumbles Under Massive Load
Over the weekend, Brett Adcock, founder of the American artificial intelligence company Hark, announced an unusual promotional campaign: the company would distribute one million dollars worth of pizza across the United States for free. The condition was that the order had to be placed using Hark Pro, the AI-based personal assistant launched by the company earlier this month.
To enjoy the promotion, users were asked to download the app and type "Order a free pizza" in the chat. From there, the AI agent was supposed to take over: finding pizzerias in the user's residential area using the DoorDash delivery service, presenting options to choose from, assembling an order according to the requested toppings and size, and reaching the payment screen. The user was required to confirm the order, while Hark committed to funding it using a $30 DoorDash gift card.
However, the demand for free pizzas was exceptionally high, and the system struggled to cope. Shortly after the launch of the campaign, numerous customers complained that the company's gift card was not applied to the order, causing them to be charged the full price of the pizza.
"We experienced a technical glitch for about 30 minutes that prevented the activation of the gift cards, resulting in some users being charged the full amount," Adcock confirmed.
He announced that the issue had been fixed and that the company would contact affected customers directly to resolve the charges. He later reported that the unusual load caused the company's systems to crash twice, forcing the team to perform two emergency fixes to restore normal service operation.
Despite the glitches, many users posted pictures of the pizzas they received, reporting that the AI agent successfully completed the order for them, from choosing the pizzeria to payment. According to the company, tens of thousands of pizzas were delivered across the U.S. as a result of the promotion, providing valuable operational experience under extreme load.
Backing and Corporate Growth
Behind the campaign stands Hark, an AI company founded by Adcock in late 2025. In May of this year, the company raised 700 million dollars in a Series A funding round at a valuation of 6 billion dollars post-money. The round was led by Parkway Venture Capital, with participation from Nvidia, the investment arms of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel, and Qualcomm, as well as Salesforce Ventures and ARK Invest.
