Allbirds, the former minimalist shoe company that briefly surged in popularity among Silicon Valley tech workers a decade ago, announced it would suddenly become an “AI compute and cloud services company,” selling its branding and footwear assets and rechristening itself “NewBird AI”—and causing its cratering stock to jump over 800% after the announcement.
Key Facts
- In a press release issued on Wednesday, the struggling footwear company said it raised $50 million through an unnamed institutional investor to become an “AI compute infrastructure” company.
- The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, according to the release.
- As part of the pivot, the company sold its entire footwear business to brand manager American Exchange Group—a $39 million deal announced in March.
- The company said the shoes’ “brand and legacy will continue under the ownership of American Exchange Group,” whose portfolio includes other fashion brands like Aerosoles and Ed Hardy.
- The announcement caused Allbirds stock to skyrocket, rising over 800% after markets opened—although the company’s stock was still only trading around $20 per share, up over 700%, by 11:45 a.m. EDT.
Big Number
Over $4 billion. That’s how much Allbirds was valued at after its blockbuster IPO in November 2021, which raised over $300 million for the shoemaker. Allbirds’ stock price quickly sank in the months after the IPO, and the company’s stock was trading at $2.49 per share before the pivot was announced.
Key Background
Allbirds is not the first company to pivot away from its core business to a trend in tech. The Long Island Iced Tea Company made a similar move in 2017, announcing it would become primarily a blockchain company. Although the stock price also skyrocketed immediately after the announcement, the pivot didn’t exactly work in the long run—the company was delisted by the Securities and Exchange Committee in 2021, which claimed in an order the company’s new “blockchain business never became operational.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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