Shoemaker Allbirds Suddenly Says It’s An AI Company

Allbirds, a former minimalist shoe company popular among Silicon Valley tech workers, announced a pivot to become an AI computing cloud services company, rebranding as Newbird AI. The struggling footwear company raised $50 million from an unnamed institutional investor to become an AI compute infrastructure company. As part of this change, Allbirds sold its footwear business to American Exchange Group for $39 million, a deal expected to close in Q2 2026. American Exchange Group will continue the shoe brand and its legacy. Following the announcement, Allbirds' stock surged over 800%, trading around $20 per share, significantly up from $2.49 before the pivot. The company was valued at over $4 million after its November 2021 IPO, which raised over $300 million, but its stock price had quickly declined thereafter. This pivot mirrors a similar move by Long Island Iced Tea company in 2017, which became a blockchain company, initially seeing a stock price surge, but ultimately failed and was delisted in 2021.