Allbirds footwear (BIRD) has seen its stock skyrocket by over 200% after announcing that it is transforming from a footwear/apparel company to an AI developer. The change in philosophy was revealed on Wednesday morning in a press release, as Allbirds secured $50 million for an AI compute infrastructure pivot.
Allbirds is a San Francisco maker of wool shoes. The company was once valued at more than $4 billion. Now, the company sold its intellectual property and other assets to American Exchange Group two weeks ago for $39 million. Furthermore, the stock has slumped by more than 99 per cent since its flotation on Nasdaq in 2021. The footwear creator has seen its financial struggles as of late, closing all of its U.S. full-priced stores in February.
Now, Allbirds is transforming into NewBird AI, looking to capitalize on the surging artificial intelligence industry. It announced a deal to raise approximately $50 million in funding, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026. “The Company will initially seek to acquire high-performance, low-latency AI compute hardware and provide access under long-term lease arrangements, meeting customer demand that spot markets and hyperscalers are unable to reliably service,” the company said in the announcement. Under the NewBird AI name, the company has positioned itself as a “fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider.”
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The announcement boosted shares of Allbirds (BIRD) by more than 400%. The shares, which were under $3 a day ago, jumped to above $13 in the morning, and have settled just above $12 a share.