- Allbirds stock surged nearly 600% after pivoting to AI data centres and GPU services
- The company plans a $50 million financing to acquire high-end GPUs for AI compute
- Allbirds rebranded as NewBird AI and will close most physical stores for online focus
In perhaps the biggest example of the AI boom, a struggling US shoe company saw its stock surge nearly 600 per cent in a single day after a bizarre pivot to AI data centres. Allbirds, an apparel and footwear brand, said it would execute a $50 million convertible financing agreement with an institutional investor and plans to use the proceeds to fund the acquisition of high-end graphics processing units (GPUs). The company said its new long-term vision was to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider.
“NewBird AI expects to use initial capital from the Facility to acquire high-performance GPU assets, which will be deployed to serve customers requiring dedicated access to AI compute capacity,” Allbirds said in its announcement, as the stock closed up 582 per cent at $16.99, valuing the company at nearly $148 million.
"Over time, the Company intends to grow its neocloud platform by expanding its compute and service offerings, deepening partnerships with operators and customers, and evaluating strategic M&A opportunities.”
The San Francisco-based company has rebranded itself as "NewBird AI" while it shuts down most of its brick-and-mortar stores, owing to muted demand and a switch to online partnerships.
Allbirds said the rise of AI development and adoption had created an "unprecedented structural demand" for specialised, high-performance computing that the market was struggling to meet.
"NewBird AI is being built to help close that gap. The Company will initially seek to acquire high-performance, low-latency AI compute hardware and provide access under long-term lease arrangements, meeting customer demand that spot markets and hyperscalers are unable to reliably service."
Allbirds is not the first company to pivot towards an AI-related business. Last year, a major Bitcoin mining firm, Bitfarm, announced that it would fully abandon crypto mining and use its existing infrastructure to become an AI data centre and offer GPUaaS to clients. In 2017, beverage maker Long Island Iced Tea pivoted to blockchain technology under the name Long Blockchain
