Allbirds, the maker of minimalist wool sneakers beloved by Silicon Valley, announced on Wednesday that it is leaving shoes behind and pivoting to artificial intelligence. The new focus and rebrand as “NewBird AI” sent the company’s stock up 582% as of mid-day during a flurry of trading.
The surging stock price and new direction is a bizarre, rapid turnaround for a company that had fallen into disrepair in recent years. Once valued at $4bn, Allbirds’ shares had lost 99% of their worth since 2021 and earlier this month the company announced plans for a $39m sale to brand management firm American Exchange Company.
Allbirds’ declaration that it will concentrate on acquiring graphics processing units to help support AI compute stands out as one of the most baffling pivots of the AI boom, a period in which many companies have tried to shoehorn in AI to appeal to investors and the market. The long-term viability of its plan is less clear than the immediate effect of turning Allbirds into something of a meme stock, with its value wildly fluctuating throughout the day.
Tbf, I should probably just have posted this in ~lol.
The stupidest of timelines, really.
Here comes the AI-r Jordans!
hahahaa
Sometimes insane pivots work, ask Buffett.
It took me a second to realize you were being sarcastic.
Yes, but there's a serious undertone. He did pull off a pivot from textile producer (familiar?) to a... conglomerate. Must always make a first move. In the end what matters is how you execute your plans.
Oh, didn't know about that one. Tnx for clarifying the extra layer.
Pump and dump?
It’s no 500% but people are getting out while they can! Will the AI hype cycle be the bag holders of BIRD
(I used to own shares in this company)