Something big is coming to Big Chicken. The newest partner in the Shaquille O’Neal’s sandwich empire made an amazing announcement. Big Chicken Shaq just opened its first location in Mississippi this week at Hattiesburg and is already expanding into the food truck realm. What’s next for the chicken chain? Maybe something to do with Shaq’s recent interest in Artificial Intelligence. He used to be understandably afraid of AI. Lately, his business moves have been closer to the trillion dollar field.

The announcement came from Darren Marble, a multi-hyphenate like the NBA legend himself. He’s in the crowdfunding and AI space while also delving in media. He initially announced on his official X page, “Breaking: we’ve secured a $750K allocation in Shaq’s Big Chicken.” 

Darren Marble is the CEO of CrowdfundX, a marketing firm that uses AI and digital marketing to draw in customers and investors, and Issuance, where the crowdfunding is. For Big Chicken, Marble did a seed round of $10 million and secured an $8.5 million commitment via Issuance which was founded in 2018.

He further touted the $750,000 allocation to drive interest in the SPV with another post that read, “Interested in being ‘last money in’ in Shaq’s Big Chicken deal?” (This investment was open only to accredited investors.)

Under Marble’s efforts for Shaq’s business, Big Chicken had a pre-money valuation of $37.5 million. It’s unclear what the $750,000 is allocated for at this point, but with Marble and O’Neal working together, the possibilities are boundless.

Big Chicken Shaq has something cooking with Darren Marble

In another world, Shaquille O’Neal and Darren Marble’s paths wouldn’t have crossed. The 4x NBA champion is not averse to the tech biz being an early investor in Google and since he was drawn to Ring and Lyft. It’s AI that scared him. Until last year, he was still expressing his concerns about artificial intelligence taking away jobs.

Then in late 2023, he was publicizing his investment in the AI-driven Edutech service, Edsoma. He even started sharing AI-Generated memes and now tells kids they should be getting good grades when they have access to conveniences like Google and ChatGPT. His partners at Authentic Brands also trademarked ‘Shaq AI.’

Now it appears to be a part of the Big Chicken growth too. Marble is driving this AI-based crowdfunding but their partnership could go deeper. The purpose of the $750k allocation might be involved in their partnership.

Marble is the executive producer of Going Public, an original series that follows entrepreneurs on their crowdfunding journey. At the Go Big Conference, O’Neal and the Big Chicken CEO Josh Halpern hinted at a show in the making with Shaq’s mom and eldest daughter centered on Big Chicken. Marble might just be the guy who could make that happen.

Darren Marble will be hosting a webinar with Josh Halpern for the new investors. And perhaps that would outline their upcoming plans.