Allbirds pulled off one of the wilder pivots in recent memory on Wednesday. The struggling shoe brand announced it was ditching footwear for AI compute infrastructure, sending BIRD stock up 582% in a single session.
The company revealed a $50 million convertible financing deal with an institutional investor to fund the transition. It also plans to rename itself NewBird AI and offer GPU-as-a-Service to businesses that can’t access enough computing power.
The Allbirds brand itself isn’t disappearing entirely. A $39 million deal, announced in March, hands the brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group — the fashion conglomerate behind names like Ecko Unltd and Aerosoles.
CEO Joe Vernachio said the move would allow the company to “thrive in the years ahead.” Not everyone agreed.
William Blair analyst Dylan Carden dropped coverage of BIRD following the announcement. He called it a “Hail Mary,” and pointed out that the company could even opt to shut down within 12 months, pending a key shareholder vote on May 18.
The stock’s market cap jumped from roughly $10 million to around $140 million on the news. Carden described the rally as driven by thin float, momentum buying, and hype — not fundamentals.
He also flagged that while selling the footwear business could trigger a special dividend, the estimated liquidation value of the company could be as low as $0.02 to $1.83 per share.
Allbirds’ sales have dropped sharply over the past four years, with heavy losses reported throughout. The $50 million in new funding buys some runway, but could dilute existing holders.
Retail analyst Hitha Herzog was blunt. The excitement over Allbirds “just by putting AI in an announcement” makes it “clearly a meme stock,” she said, pointing to the lack of any product or earnings tied to the new business.
Branding consultant Wei Kan from Conduit Asia compared the move to a “liquidation” — using the shell of a listed shoe brand to enter an entirely unrelated industry. “A stock going from $3 to $17 on a press release doesn’t restore $4bn in destroyed value,” Kan said.
BIRD had been trading around $2.50 before the announcement, down from a peak of more than $500 per share at its 2021 Nasdaq listing. Year-to-date, the stock is still up over 300%.
After the 582% surge during the session, BIRD fell roughly 25% in after-hours trading.
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