Footwear firm Allbirds shifts business focus to AI
Edited by Rachel Kleinman, Editor at LinkedIn News
Change is afoot at Allbirds as the company known for sneakers says it's moving into AI infrastructure. Shares soared by as much as 700% Wednesday on the news, rising above $17 — up from less than $3 at Tuesday's close. The company's new name will be NewBird AI, and it's seeking to raise up to $50 million in funding by the end of this year's fiscal second quarter. Last month, American Exchange Group agreed to buy all of Allbirds' assets and intellectual property for $39 million.
LinkedIn Talent Insights
The "AI pivot" is happening at a company in freefall. Allbirds has 452 employees (down 22% YoY), 44% attrition, and exactly 3 open jobs across the entire company — none of which are AI roles. The workforce is Sales (24%), Operations (12%), and Customer Success (10%); there's no Engineering function in the top five. The 700% pop is sentiment about the name; the talent data shows there's nothing behind it yet.
The shoe brand that once dominated the Silicon Valley startup scene just rebranded into an AI company.
On Wednesday, Allbirds sold its brand for $39 million, crowned itself as “NewBird AI,” and pivoted to a GPU-as-a-Service firm, sending its stock up more than 600%.
Just as every executive in the late 1990s wanted to claim they ran “internet” companies, the same trend has followed with AI.
Yet the two closest analogs for Allbirds don’t exactly inspire confidence:
BuzzFeed, January 2023: stock jumped 120% the day after announcing a deal with OpenAI before erasing all of its gains within 8 months
Rent the Runway, April 2024: AI-search language immediately boosted the stock 270%, but it gave back those gains within 6 months
At this moment, Allbird’s business looks more like BuzzFeed than Rent the Runway’s.
The 2021-IPO cohort of consumer brands has had a brutal ride — Allbirds, Warby Parker, Casper. The "AI rebrand" route is increasingly the only reflexive lever left for boards facing delisting risk...
AM
Amanda Marsh, CFA
· 2nd
PM · Long/Short Consumer
1h · 🌐
Going to be saving the LinkedIn Insights data point for the next time someone tells me about an AI rebrand. 3 open jobs, 44% attrition. The talent layer doesn't lie.
