Allbirds pivots to Newbird AI

Allbirds said Wednesday it plans to stop being a shoe company and remake itself as NewBird AI, a buyer and lessor of artificial intelligence chips. (sec.gov) The company signed a $50 million convertible financing facility with an institutional investor and said it expects to use the initial capital to buy high-performance graphics processing units, or GPUs. It said those machines would be leased to customers that want dedicated computing capacity under long-term arrangements. (markets.businessinsider.com) The pivot comes two weeks after Allbirds agreed on March 29 to sell substantially all of its footwear assets to Allbirds IP LLC, an affiliate of American Exchange Group, for $39 million. The buyer is set to take the trademarks, patents, inventory, customer lists, social media accounts and other brand assets. (sec.gov) A graphics processing unit is the chip that powers much of modern artificial intelligence work, from training models to serving responses after a model is built. Companies that control those chips can rent computing time the way a landlord rents out scarce space. (cnbc.com) Allbirds said the renamed company’s long-term plan is to become a “GPU-as-a-Service” provider, meaning customers would pay for access to remote chip clusters instead of buying servers themselves. The financing is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, and conversion into stock requires shareholder approval. (financialcontent.com) Shareholders are scheduled to vote at a special meeting on May 18, 2026 on the asset sale, the name change to NewBird AI, a Nasdaq share-issuance proposal tied to the convertible notes, and a dissolution proposal that the company says it could still abandon. The preliminary proxy says the company intends to keep operating after the asset sale under the new name. (sec.gov) The move follows a long retreat from Allbirds’ original retail business. On January 28, the company said it would close its remaining full-price stores in the United States by the end of February, leaving two outlet stores in the United States and two full-price stores in London. (sec.gov) Allbirds entered 2026 after a steep decline in its core business. The company reported 2025 revenue of $152.5 million, down 19.7% from 2024, and a net loss of $77.3 million, while warning of substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. (quartr.com) Investors initially treated the announcement like a meme-stock shock. Allbirds shares, which closed at $2.49 on April 14, traded above $10 in early trading Wednesday, lifting the company’s market value from about $21.7 million to roughly $88 million. (cnbc.com; finance.yahoo.com) If shareholders approve the plan, the Allbirds name will stay with American Exchange Group’s footwear business, while the public company that once sold wool runners will try to make money renting out artificial intelligence hardware. (sec.gov; sec.gov)