For a decade, Allbirds has made quality shoes with a focus on sustainability. In the early 2020s, the company expanded and went public, but they’ve been struggling mightily of late. Never fear, however, as A.I. is here. Or at least, the promise of something realted to artificial intelligence is, anyway.
I’ve worn and loved a couple pairs of Allbirds, but I was blissfully unaware of their recent financial struggles. As a result, I was quite confused when friend-of-the-site Mike A. pointed me to a press release in which Allbirds announced an “expansion into A.I. compute infrastructure”. What?
After digging around a bit, I believe it goes like this:
The Allbirds corporate entity has sold off its shoe business to a portfolio company (“American Exchange Group”) for $39 million. What’s left?
Well, the hollowed-out Allbirds entity itself still exists, and it’s holding that $39 million. As well, it’s publicly listed under the sweet ticker symbol BIRD.
Now, they’ve announced that that hollowed-out entity will soon be renamed “NewBird AI”, and that this shell (ha!) of a company will raise another $50 million in funding to do some vague A.I. shit.
It takes time to get a publicly-listed company, and they want to cash in on this A.I. fad as soon as possible, so they’ve hollowed out their shoe company and turned it into an A.I. company, why not.
The former shoe company no longer owns any shoe company assets, but it does have A.I. aspirations (and fine, maybe another $50 million bucks in funding ). Naturally, the stock is now soaring. At the time of publication, BIRD stock is worth more than eight times what it was literally yesterday. I guess the market likes their plan and/or is now aware that they’ve unburdened themselves of a flagging shoe business.
While I don’t own any BIRD stock, I do hope to continue to be able to purchase Allbird shoes. I guess I’m now pinning my hopes on American Exchange Group being a good steward of the brand. As far as Newbird AI goes, I won’t be surprised if I never hear about it again.
