Author: Bitpush

Leonardo DiCaprio bought into it, Obama and Cook wore it, and Emma Watson gave it a shout-out…

However, this "top middle-class" product is no longer selling.

On April 15, 2026, Allbirds, a popular American sneaker brand, made a major announcement: the company will completely abandon its shoe manufacturing business and fully shift to artificial intelligence computing infrastructure, and will be renamed "NewBird AI" .

As soon as the news broke, the stock price soared from less than $3 to a high of over $24 during the day, with a single-day increase of over 800%.

Just two weeks ago, this once-star brand sold off all of its intellectual property and footwear assets for a paltry $39 million —only one percent of its peak market value of $4.1 billion.

From the wool shoes worn by Silicon Valley elites to a shell company turning to tinkering with GPU computing power—Allbirds' story is not just about the rise and fall of a startup; it shows us the madness of today's capital market: AI is a panacea.

The rise and fall of "Silicon Valley magic shoes"

In 2015, former New Zealand professional footballer Tim Brown and renewable resources expert Joey Zwillinger founded Allbirds in San Francisco. Their vision was simple and clear: to create a comfortable shoe that does not rely on petroleum-based raw materials, using natural materials such as merino wool and eucalyptus fiber.

In 2016, the first product, the Wool Runner, was launched and quickly became a hit in Silicon Valley's tech circles. Google co-founder Larry Page, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and even former US President Barack Obama became fans of these wool shoes.

Allbirds caught two golden opportunities. First, the golden age of the DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) model – bypassing traditional retail channels, reaching consumers directly through the official website, and gaining complete user data and brand narrative control. Second, the ethical awakening of "sustainable consumption" – with environmental protection becoming a global consensus, a pair of shoes with a "zero carbon footprint" is itself a declaration of values.

As these two narratives fermented in the context of an economic upswing, Allbirds quickly grew from a Kickstarter crowdfunding project into a publicly traded company valued at over $4 billion.

But Allbirds' fall was almost as swift as its rise.

Its business failure followed a typical DTC script: a single blockbuster product supported the entire brand, and it rushed to expand into apparel and physical retail before its foundation was solid, resulting in an overextended business line and a loss of brand positioning.

As more and more brands start talking about environmental protection, and as competitors such as Hoka and On surpass them in performance and design, Allbirds' sustainability narrative is rapidly being diluted.

In 2022, the company's revenue reached a historical peak of $298 million; it then declined steadily, falling to $152 million by 2025, nearly halved. Over the past five years, despite accumulating approximately $1.2 billion in sales, the company has incurred a total loss of $419 million.

In 2024, the company received a delisting warning from Nasdaq because its stock price had been below $1 for 30 consecutive days. It then barely maintained its listing status through a reverse stock split.

In February 2026, Allbirds announced the closure of all its full-price retail stores in the United States.

On March 30, 2026, Allbirds signed an agreement with brand management company American Exchange Group to sell its intellectual property and related assets for $39 million. The buyer owns brands such as Aerosoles and Ed Hardy and will continue to sell footwear products under the Allbirds name.

The price has also come down. I checked the prices on the website today, and shoes that used to cost over $100 are now on sale for around $30.

The "shell" of a listed company awaits its next fate—and the answer came faster than anyone imagined.

From selling shoes to buying GPUs

The announcement on April 15th can be described as one of the most unexpected transformations in business history. Allbirds announced that it had entered into a convertible bond financing agreement with an institutional investor for up to $50 million. The funds will be used to acquire high-performance GPU hardware and provide computing power access services to customers through a long-term leasing model. The company plans to change its name to "NewBird AI," with a long-term vision of becoming a "fully integrated provider of GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions."

The market reaction was almost frenzied. At the close of trading on April 14th, Allbirds' market capitalization was only about $21 million; after the announcement, the stock price briefly touched $24.31, and the market capitalization ballooned to approximately $165 million. On Fidelity Investments' trading activity rankings, Allbirds became one of the most actively traded stocks that day, demonstrating the enthusiasm of retail traders.

This frenzied market reaction is less about pricing in NewBird AI's fundamentals and more about pricing in the "AI" label itself.

Allbirds' transformation announcement did not reveal any specific information about customer resources, technology teams, or data center deployment plans—aside from $50 million in cash and a vague blueprint of "buying GPUs and then renting them out."

Independent consultant Bruce Winder commented, "I don't think Allbirds can bring anything substantial, except for brand awareness itself."

It's worth noting that while shifting its focus to AI, Allbirds is also requesting shareholder approval in its SEC filings to amend its articles of incorporation to remove the phrase "serving the public interest"—meaning that this company, once proud of its B Corp certification, is actively shedding its environmental mission, the very foundation of its reputation. From "saving the planet" to "selling computing power," Allbirds' value leap may be more symbolic than the business transformation itself.

AI-powered storytelling remains the most powerful business magic.

Allbirds isn't the first to do this, and it certainly won't be the last. Over the past 18 months, from fast fashion to fresh food e-commerce, from logistics companies to home furnishing brands, a large number of traditional enterprises have rushed to label themselves as "AI." The reason is actually quite simple: shoe sellers have a price-to-earnings ratio of just over 10, while those selling computing power can be inflated to over 50; GPUs are now a hard currency, more sought after than gold, and whoever has priority in receiving them holds the key to resale profits; plus, consumers' wallets are indeed thinner, so instead of continuing to spend money on advertising and competing with Temu for traffic, it's better to gamble on enterprise-level AI computing power leasing—at least the story sounds better.

Looking at history in a broader context, this kind of "clothing rebranding" is nothing new. During the 2017 crypto boom, a beverage company, Long Island Iced Tea, changed its name to "Long Blockchain Corp.", and its stock price surged nearly 300% in a single day, only to be delisted from Nasdaq the following year. In 2024, many Bitcoin mining companies shifted their focus to AI data centers, with Core Scientific being one of the most successful examples. From the dot-com bubble to blockchain, and now to AI, the script in the capital markets has never changed: the industry is priced before profitability, and the narrative precedes reality.

Allbirds' transformation essentially involves exchanging its remaining brand reputation and listed company status for a GPU procurement contract. The core issue is whether this entry ticket is truly valuable. AI infrastructure is a highly capital-intensive industry with extremely high technological barriers. The GPU leasing market already has players valued at billions of dollars, as well as deep involvement from massive cloud service providers like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Whether a company that once made shoes can survive in this crowded field with only $50 million in funding and a single GPU setup remains a huge unknown. Not to mention, this funding still needs approval at the special shareholder meeting on May 18th.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal commented, "This move allows them to exit a structurally low-margin footwear and apparel business and enter a higher-value computing business, but the execution risk remains high."

We are witnessing a new era: any entity—whatever it was before—can be redefined as an AI company. If the story is compelling enough, capital will buy it.

AI-powered storytelling remains the most powerful business magic today.