Losing money for five years, can a shoe factory pivot into an AI computing company? Allbirds stock price surged 582% in a single day

The wool shoes that once took Silicon Valley by storm—everyone wore them on their feet—have now seemingly pivoted into becoming an AI compute provider. With a single press release, Allbirds saw its stock price leap from $3 to $17. Yet in the capital markets, changing a signboard never equals changing capabilities. Just last year, a similar “topic-riding” script played out, and the same sense of deja vu from the digital asset vault (DAT) chaos has once again come to the surface.

Allbirds announces its AI pivot: from wool shoes to GPUs

Previously seen on the eco-friendly footwear brand Allbirds, which appeared on actor Ben Affleck (Ben Affleck) and former U.S. president Barack Obama (Barack Obama), the company on April 15 announced a renaming to “NewBird AI.” It will give up shifting from the shoe business to cutting into AI computing infrastructure and a cloud platform, moving to address the current market gap where compute power is in short supply. The moment the news broke, the stock surged 582% in a single day, closing at $16.99.

The company said it has reached a $50 million convertible financing agreement with unnamed institutional investors. The funds will be used to acquire high-performance GPUs. Its long-term goal is to build a “GPU-as-a-Service (GPU-as-a-Service)” platform. The company’s existing brand and footwear business were sold in March for $39 million to the fashion group American Exchange Group. The overall transformation plan still awaits approval at a shareholders’ meeting on May 18.

Outside voices pour cold water: shell companies swapping for new skins

Conduit Asia brand consultant Wei Kan described the move as “liquidation,” not a transformation, arguing that it is simply borrowing the shell of a listed shoe business to move into an industry with no connection whatsoever. The move brings to mind the 2017 beverage company Long Island Iced Tea renaming itself to “Long Blockchain.” After the stock price surged, it was promptly investigated by the SEC and ultimately ended up being delisted.

Since listing in 2021, Allbirds has continued to post losses. Full-year revenue in 2025 fell 20% year over year, and in early 2026 it has already shut down all physical locations across the U.S. It has dropped by more than 99% from its peak of over $500 per share.

Has a similar script appeared in the crypto world? The other side of the DAT craze

Last year, many companies followed MicroStrategy (Strategy), adding cryptocurrency to their balance sheets to build a digital asset vault (DAT)—and their stock prices climbed accordingly. As Bitcoin has sharply pulled back from its 10-month 126,000 USD high point over the past year, the costs are gradually becoming apparent.

This includes ETHZilla, a former Ethereum reserve company supported by Peter Thiel. It later abandoned buying ETH and pivoted toward the tokenized aircraft engine leasing domain, trying to keep the narrative alive with an RWA story. Companies such as FG Nexus and GD Culture Group chose to survive by selling coins to buy back shares as well—each of them reflects the reality that “once the tide goes out, you find out who isn’t wearing pants.”

(Get back to breakeven on Bitcoin faster than MicroStrategy! Can it lead DAT back from the dead?)

From Allbirds to ETHZilla, the same playbook keeps getting repeated: a “new narrative,” a surge in stock prices, and retail investors taking the bag. And the market’s short memory is precisely the fundamental reason it keeps happening.

This article first appeared on Lian News ABMedia: Can a five-year loss-making shoe manufacturer transform into an AI compute company? Allbirds’ stock surged 582% in a single day.