Allbirds stock surged 373% after the sneaker brand pivoted to AI computing
The San Francisco company is selling its footwear assets for $39 million and rebranding as NewBird AI, a GPU-as-a-Service provider
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Allbirds stock rose 373% this week after the San Francisco footwear company announced plans to sell its shoe brand and assets and rebrand as an AI infrastructure company called NewBird AI.
Under the NewBird AI name, the company has positioned itself as a "fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider." Funding for the transition comes from a $50 million convertible financing facility arranged with an institutional investor whose identity has not been disclosed; proceeds will go toward purchasing GPU assets to serve clients in need of AI compute capacity.
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A March agreement transferred the footwear brand and its associated assets to American Exchange Group — the owner of Aerosoles, among other labels — for $39 million. Once the transaction is finalized, that company will take over production for existing Allbirds customers. Both the asset sale and the new financing require shareholder sign-off before they can proceed; that vote is set for May 18. A dividend would be distributed to shareholders in the third quarter if the deal clears that hurdle.
Rather than pursuing a fresh public listing, Allbirds is repurposing its existing Nasdaq $NDAQ-listed entity — which trades under the ticker BIRD — to enter the AI market directly. The company's market value closed at about $22 million on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, before the announcement.
Looking ahead, the company intends to expand what it offers by pursuing partnerships and, where circumstances allow, strategic acquisitions.
The move follows a pattern of struggling companies pivoting into high-growth sectors. Recent precedents cited by Bloomberg include Core Scientific, which shifted focus from Bitcoin mining to AI in 2024, and several biotech firms that repositioned themselves around digital assets the following year. TechCrunch points to an older warning sign: Long Island Iced Tea's 2017 blockchain rebrand sent its shares up roughly 275%, but the gains proved short-lived — Nasdaq removed the stock from its exchange the next year once enthusiasm for Bitcoin cooled.