Allbirds, the former minimalist shoe company that briefly surged in popularity among Silicon Valley tech workers a decade ago, announced it would suddenly become an “AI compute and cloud services company,” selling its branding and footwear assets and rechristening itself “NewBird AI”—and causing its cratering stock to jump over 800% after the announcement.

BIG NUMBER

Over $4 billion. That’s how much Allbirds was valued at after its blockbuster IPO in November 2021, which raised over $300 million for the shoemaker. Allbirds’ stock price quickly sank in the months after the IPO, and the company’s stock was trading at $2.49 per share before the pivot was announced.

KEY BACKGROUND

Allbirds is not the first company to pivot away from its core business to a trend in tech. The Long Island Iced Tea Company made a similar move in 2017, announcing it would become primarily a blockchain company. Although the stock price also skyrocketed immediately after the announcement, the pivot didn’t exactly work in the long run—the company was delisted by the Securities and Exchange Committee in 2021, which claimed in an order the company’s new “blockchain business never became operational.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk/2026/04/15/shoemaker-allbirds-suddenly-says-its-an-ai-company-and-stock-jumps-800/

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