Shares in shoe brand Allbirds rise 580% after it pivots from footwear to AI
10 hours ago
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- Allbirds shares surged over 580% after announcing a pivot from shoes to AI, including a name change to NewBird AI.
- The company entered a $50M deal to become an AI compute infrastructure business, citing a market gap in computing power for AI.
- The Allbirds brand will be sold to American Exchange Group for $39M, while NewBird AI plans to offer on-demand GPUs and cloud services for AI.
- Analysts criticized the move as akin to a liquidation or a meme stock trend, driven by AI hype without proven products or earnings.
- Allbirds has struggled with profitability since its 2021 IPO, with its stock value dropping from over $500 to around $2.50 before the AI announcement.