Allbirds announced a switch from shoes to AI and its stock jumped 600 percent
TL;DR
Allbirds had a hit a decade ago with its Wool Runner shoes, but after a $4 billion IPO in 2021, the business never turned a profit, and sales dropped nearly 50 percent between 2022 and 2025. The company recently announced it would sell off its name and assets for $39 million to American Exchange after closing the remaining stores.
Nauti's Take
A bankrupt shoe company gaining 600% through AI rebranding shows the enormous power of AI hype as a market phenomenon. For genuine GPU-as-a-Service providers it's double-edged: visibility yes, but credibility is at risk.
The correction risk is high — substantive AI infrastructure projects need to clearly differentiate themselves.
Summary
Allbirds had a hit a decade ago with its Wool Runner shoes, but after a $4 billion IPO in 2021, the business never turned a profit, and sales dropped nearly 50 percent between 2022 and 2025. The company recently announced it would sell off its name and assets for $39 million to American Exchange after closing the remaining stores. That shell listing, however, still has some use as the Financial Times points out, and now CEO Joe Vernachio has announced a plan to raise $50 million from an unnamed investor, which will turn NewBird AI into "a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider.
Sources