Allbirds unexpectedly announced its transition from sustainable shoes to AI compute infrastructure.
The move comes after the company’s sale of its intellectual property and other assets two weeks ago for $39 million, following a peak valuation of around $4 billion. Allbirds closed all its U.S. full-priced stores in February.
The move to AI boosted the company’s shares by 582%, valued at about $21 million at Tuesday’s close. The shares, which were under $3 a day ago, jumped to $17.
The new company, NewBird AI, announced a deal to raise up to $50 million in funding, expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.
In a release posted to its investor relations page, Allbirds said, “The Allbirds brand and legacy will continue under the ownership of American Exchange Group for the benefit of all of its customers, investors as of the dividend record date will receive a special dividend, and investors who elect to continue to hold NewBird AI stock will be invested in a growing AI compute infrastructure business supported by the Facility.”
“NewBird AI expects to use initial capital from the Facility to acquire high-performance GPU assets, which will be deployed to serve customers requiring dedicated access to AI compute capacity. NewBird AI’s long-term vision is to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider. Over time, the Company intends to grow its neocloud platform by expanding its compute and service offerings, deepening partnerships with operators and customers, and evaluating strategic M&A opportunities.”
“North American data center vacancy rates have reached historic lows, and market-wide compute capacity coming online through mid-2026 is already fully committed. The result is a market where enterprises, AI developers, and research organizations are unable to secure the compute resources they need to build, train and run AI at scale… NewBird AI is being built to help close that gap.”
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
