Overview
- Allbirds, which announced the shift Wednesday, said it will change its name to NewBird AI and secured up to $50 million in convertible financing targeted to close in the second quarter of 2026.
- The company plans to buy high‑performance graphics chips (GPUs) and rent that power to customers under long‑term leases, a model known as GPU‑as‑a‑Service that lets firms tap compute without building their own data centers.
- Last month the company agreed to sell the Allbirds brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group for about $39 million, with the buyer expected to keep selling products under the Allbirds name.
- Both the asset sale and the financing require stockholder approval at a special meeting set for May 18, 2026, and the company says a special dividend is expected in the third quarter for holders of record as of May 20 if the sale is approved.
- Shares spiked more than 400% in intraday trading after the announcement, while analysts warned of high execution and dilution risk and drew parallels to past headline‑grabbing pivots that struggled to deliver.