Author: seed.eth, BitpushNews

Lee DiCaprio invested in it, Obama and Cook rushed to get involved, and Emma Watson took the initiative to call for it...

However, this "top-tier middle-class" product cannot be sold.

On April 15, 2026, the American Internet celebrity sports shoe brand Allbirds issued a major announcement: the company will completely abandon the shoemaking business, fully shift to artificial intelligence computing power infrastructure, and change its name to "NewBird AI".

As soon as the news came out, the stock price soared from less than $3 to an intraday high of more than $24, with a single-day increase of more than 800%.

Just half a month ago, this former star brand had just sold all its intellectual property and footwear assets for US$39 million - only one percent of its peak market value of US$4.1 billion.

From the woolen shoes on the feet of Silicon Valley elites to shell companies turning around to divert GPU computing power - the story of Allbirds is not just the ups and downs of a startup, it allows us to see clearly the madness of today's capital market: AI is the panacea.

The rise and fall of the "Silicon Valley God Shoes"

In 2015, Allbirds was founded in San Francisco by former New Zealand professional football player Tim Brown and renewable resources expert Joey Zwillinger. Their vision was simple and clear: to use natural materials such as merino wool and eucalyptus fiber to create a pair of comfortable shoes that do not rely on petroleum-based raw materials.

In 2016, the first product Wool Runner came out and quickly became popular in the Silicon Valley technology circle. Google co-founder Larry Page, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and even former U.S. President Obama have become fans of this pair of wool shoes.

Allbirds has caught up with two excellent trends. One is the golden age of the DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) model - bypassing traditional retail channels, reaching consumers directly through the official website, and mastering complete user data and brand narrative rights. The second is the ethical awakening of "sustainable consumption" - in the context of environmental protection becoming a global consensus, a pair of "zero carbon footprint" shoes itself is a statement of values.

When these two narratives fermented in the soil of the economic upturn, Allbirds quickly grew from a Kickstarter crowdfunding project to a listed company with a valuation of more than $4 billion.

But the Allbirds' fall was almost as rapid as their rise.

The business collapse followed a typical DTC script: a single hot product supported the entire brand, and when the foundation was not stable, it was eager to expand into clothing and physical retail. The front was too long, causing the brand positioning to lose focus.

When more and more brands begin to talk about environmental protection, and when competitors such as Hoka and On surpass them in performance and design, Allbirds' sustainable narrative is quickly diluted.

In 2022, the company's revenue reached a historical peak of US$298 million; it has since declined, and by 2025 it has dropped to US$152 million, nearly halved. In the past five years, despite achieving cumulative sales of approximately US$1.2 billion, total losses have been as high as US$419 million.

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

In February 2026, Allbirds announced the closure of all 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 US$39 million. The buyer owns brands such as Aerosoles and Ed Hardy and will continue to sell footwear products under the name Allbirds.

The price has also been reduced. The editor went to the website to check the price today. Shoes that once cost more than 100 US dollars are now discounted to more than 30 US dollars. . .

The "shell" of the listed company is waiting for its next fate - and this answer will come faster than anyone imagined.

From selling shoes to buying GPU

The announcement on April 15 was one of the most surprising transformations in business history. Allbirds announced that it has reached a convertible bond financing agreement with an institutional investor for up to US$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", and its long-term vision is to become a "fully integrated GPU as a service (GPUaaS) and AI native cloud solution provider."

The market reaction was almost crazy. At the close of trading on April 14, Allbirds' market value was only about US$21 million; after the announcement, the stock price once hit US$24.31, and the market value expanded to about US$165 million. On the trading hot list of Fidelity Investment Platform, Allbirds became one of the most active targets that day, and the enthusiasm of retail traders is evident.

This crazy market reaction is not so much pricing the fundamentals of NewBird AI as it is pricing the label "AI".

Allbirds' transformation announcement did not reveal any specific information about customer resources, technical teams or data center deployment plans - except for the $50 million on the account and a vague blueprint of "buying GPUs and renting them out."

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

It is worth noting that while turning to AI, Allbirds also requested shareholder approval to amend the company's articles of association in documents submitted to the SEC to delete the statement about "serving the public interest" - which means that this company, which was once proud of its B Corp certification, is actively stepping down from the environmental mission for which it is famous. From "saving the earth" to "selling computing power," Allbirds' value jump may be more symbolic than the business transformation itself.

AI narrative is still the most powerful business magic

Allbirds is not the first to do this, and it will never be the last. In the past 18 months, from fast fashion to fresh food e-commerce, from logistics companies to home furnishing brands, a large number of traditional companies have rushed to label themselves "AI". The reason is actually very simple: the price-to-earning ratio of selling shoes is only a little over 10 times, while selling computing power can be sold for more than 50 times; GPUs are now hard currency, more popular than gold, and whoever has the priority to pick up the goods has the chips to make money by reselling them; in addition, consumers' wallets are indeed deflated, instead of continuing to spend money on advertising and Temu to compete for traffic, it is better to take a gamble on enterprise-level AI computing power leasing - at least the story is better.

Lengthening the historical lens, this kind of "changing vests" drama is not new. During the crypto craze in 2017, a beverage company, Long Island Iced Tea, changed its name to "Long Blockchain Corp." and its stock price soared nearly 300% in one day. It was delisted by Nasdaq the following year. In 2024, many Bitcoin mining companies will turn to AI data centers, and Core Scientific is one of the most successful cases. From the Internet bubble to blockchain to AI, the script of the capital market has never changed: the track is priced before profits, and narratives happen before reality.

Allbirds' transformation is essentially replacing its remaining brand credit and listing resources with a GPU procurement contract. The core of the question is whether the ticket is really worth the money. AI infrastructure is a highly capital-intensive industry with extremely high technical barriers. The GPU rental market already has players valued at billions of dollars, as well as in-depth deployments of ultra-large-scale cloud service providers such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Whether a company that once made shoes can survive in this crowded track with $50 million in financing and a set of GPU equipment is still a huge unknown. Not to mention, the financing still needs to be approved at a special meeting of shareholders on May 18.

Bloomberg Industry Research Analyst Poonam Goyal commented: "This move has enabled it to exit a structurally low-profit shoe and clothing model and enter a higher-value computing power business, but the execution risk is still high."

We are witnessing the end of an era: any entity—no matter what it once was—can be redefined as an AI company. As long as the story is moving enough, capital will pay for it.

AI narrative is still the most powerful business magic at the moment.