Overview
- Allbirds, which unveiled the pivot Wednesday, saw its thinly traded shares rocket several hundred percent as it said it will abandon footwear and relaunch as NewBird AI.
- The company signed a $50 million convertible financing deal with an institutional investor to buy high‑performance GPUs and rent out that computing power under long‑term contracts.
- The plan follows a $39 million agreement to sell the Allbirds brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group, with both deals pending a May 18 shareholder vote and a special dividend guided for the third quarter if approved.
- Company filings ask investors to remove environmental public‑benefit language from the charter as the business shifts from sustainability‑focused retail to operating AI hardware.
- Industry experts caution the new strategy is hard to execute because GPU supply is tight and data‑center work demands long‑term power, advanced cooling, and technical know‑how the shoe company has not shown.