Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
If you’ve ever seen a pair of Allbirds, you’ll understand why engineers are the only people on the planet who ride them. So it’s both mind-boggling and somehow entirely understandable that Allbirds, the shoe company that was once the only accessory a venture capital founder loved more than a fleece vest, is now pivoting to…artificial intelligence.
Sometime in the late 2010s, Allbirds, founded in 2015, became the monochrome sneaker of choice for men working 9-9-6 standing desk jobs in Silicon Valley. If you’re not lucky enough to come across this pair in the wild, they’re rather squishy, somehow well-formed, and fuzzy in a way that doesn’t make them look very cozy. At the peak of its popularity in 2021, the company was valued at $4 billion.
But brand loyalty is apparently very difficult to gain in Silicon Valley – in 2022. wall street journal The tech fraternity reported a shift primarily to brands such as On and Atoms. Allbirds stock reportedly lost more than 95 percent of its value by 2023 as it struggled to retain customers. Last month, the company was sold to a fashion management group called American Exchange Group for just $39 million.
But apparently getting into AI is a much better business model than merino wool sneakers. Because on Wednesday, Allbirds announced that it is actually becoming an AI company. The company’s new pivot, which includes changing its name to NewBird AI, has sent its stock price soaring 700%. The new company has nothing to do with sneakers and essentially appears to be using Allbirds’ existing corporate footprint as a way to lend computing power to various tech startups.
While this move may seem to go against the sustainable values Allbirds was supposedly founded on (its massive AI data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of water every day), it appears the company no longer worries too much about environmental issues overall. According to CNN, the company filed an SEC filing on Wednesday asking shareholders to approve an amendment to its articles of incorporation that would remove any reference to NewBird AI operating on an environmentally conscious basis. wonderful.
