April 15 (Reuters) - Shares of Allbirds surged more than five-fold on Wednesday after the footwear maker said it was raising capital and pivoting towards AI computing infrastructure.
The San Francisco, California-based company said that it would execute a $50 million convertible financing agreement with an institutional investor and plans to use the proceeds to acquire graphics processing units (GPUs).
Allbirds also plans to rebrand itself as "NewBird AI" and, over time, shift focus to offering cloud computing capacity and AI services, though it did not provide additional details on its new strategy.
The overhaul comes amid robust investor enthusiasm for AI-related stocks and the data-centre infrastructure that supports it, hoping to benefit from the hundreds of billions of corporate investment pouring into the technology.
"It looks like an attempt to capitalize on the AI movement. I don't see how Allbirds brings anything to the table beyond name recognition," said Bruce Winder, an independent retail consultant.
Allbirds has been shutting most of its brick-and-mortar stores over the last few months owing to muted demand and switch to online partnerships. Last month, Allbirds said it had sold its brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group for $39 million.
The stock was last up 435% at $13.33, valuing the company at $116 million, according to LSEG data. Allbirds was also among the most active orders on Fidelity's trading platform on Wednesday, signalling interest from retail traders.
The move echoes past efforts by small U.S. firms that reshaped their business models to tap investor enthusiasm. In 2017, beverage maker Long Island Iced Tea Corp pivoted to blockchain technology under the name Long Blockchain
Allbirds made its Nasdaq debut in 2021 at a valuation of $3 billion, but shed about 99% of its market value as of its last closing price.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Savyata Mishra; Editing by Diti Pujara)
