Artesian Future Technology LLC, doing business as Artesian Builds, was an American custom PC manufacturing company.
| Company type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Defunct | 2022 |
| Fate | Bankrupt |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
Key people | Noah Katz (CEO) |
| Website | http://www.artesianbuilds.com (archived) |
History
editArtesian Builds was founded as Artesian Future Technologies in 2017 by Noah Katz to sell cryptocurrency mining rigs.[1] Katz's other business venture was an Etsy store selling custom cosplay armor founded in 2015.[2] Artesian Future Technologies was rebranded in 2020 as Artesian Builds to a custom high-end PC gaming manufacturer. Artesian would build PCs live on Twitch.[2]
Controversy
editOn March 1, 2022, Artesian held a Twitch live stream where it held sweepstakes to give away a PC. A streamer, Kiapiaa, won the giveaway, but Katz refused to give her the PC, claiming that she did not meet the requirements to be an "ambassador" because she didn't have a big enough social media following. Katz proceeded to reroll the sweepstakes. The decision caused an immediate uproar, with the company apologizing.[3][4]
Bankruptcy and aftermath
editOn March 9, 2022, Artesian announced that it suspended all of its activities. On June 18, 2022, Artesian announced that it was holding a bankruptcy auction to sell off its assets. The assets sold in the auction included PC components, PCs, and GPUs.[5][6][7]
References
edit- ^ Liao, Shannon (2018-05-31). "Cryptocurrency mining rigs are just PCs — so why won't Stripe let you sell them?". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ a b Asarch, Steven (30 March 2022). "How Artesian Builds became the Fyre Fest of gaming startups". Inverse. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ Wickens, Katie (2 March 2022). "Streamer tells custom PC builder to stuff their free PC after CEO's condescending comments". PC Gamer. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- ^ Polhamus, Blaine (2022-03-01). "Artesian Builds backs out of giving streamer a PC in giveaway". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ Lal, Arjun Krishna (21 June 2022). "Artesian Builds puts thousands of PC parts, graphics cards, and partly-built systems worth nearly US$1 million up for bankruptcy auction". Notebookcheck. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ Mukherjee, Shreyan (23 June 2022). "What happened to Artesian Builds? Tracking PC manufacturer's fall from sponsoring big streamers to going bankrupt". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ "Artesian Builds ceases business amid giveaway controversy". GamesIndustry.biz. 2022-03-10. Retrieved 2022-11-01.