Allbirds stocks soars 461%: Here's how $21M brand reinvented itself as AI cloud provider

The struggling footwear brand Allbirds has shocked the market by pivoting itself as an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure company.

Following the news, the stock soared more than 460%.

The wool shoe manufacturer, valued at $4 billion, confirmed the news on Wednesday, April 15.

The officials stated that the company has planned to sell the entire footwear brand and assets to American Exchange Group for $39 million.

After rebranding, the company will be reintroduced as New Bird AI, focusing on GPU-as-a-service and AI cloud computing.

Investors went crazy. The stock price of Allbirds (NASDAQ: BIRD) rose from below $3 to more than $13, increasing its market capitalization from approximately $21 million to more than $100 million in a single trading day.

This new venture raised a $50 million convertible funding round from an unnamed institutional investor that will be used to buy high-end AI computing equipment on a lease basis.

The company stated: “We will meet customer demand that spot markets and hyperscalers are unable to reliably service.”

This is reminiscent of the trend in 2017, when Long Island Iced Tea jumped on the blockchain bandwagon before eventually getting delisted from the stock market.

However, Allbirds co-founders and former soccer players Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger believe that AI fever will prove to be more enduring.