John Ternus ascends the throne – but Cook will stay on to manage tech giant’s foreign policy as executive chair
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you after seeing The Jellicle Ball, a revival of Cats that I found fabulous and which the Guardian called “thrillingly new”.
Shares in Allbirds surge after maker of wool sneakers announces pivot to AI
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Allbirds is pivoting into artificial intelligence after selling its brand and assets for $39 million, rebranding as NewBird AI. The company announced a $50 million convertible financing facility from an undisclosed institutional investor to support its transition into a GPU-as-a-service and AI-native cloud provider. The move follows the divestment of its footwear business to American […]
In the latest sign of AI silly season, Allbirds, the shoe company, told the world it was now an AI company and briefly managed to septuple its stock price. The Newbird AI story is really just one of a bunch of things this week that made us wonder: have we reached the peak of AI, or at least a peak of AI?
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On this episode of The Vergecast, we look at both the data and the vibes. David and Nilay explore a new study from Stanford that says AI is getting better at lots of things, a …
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Rebrand as NewBird AI sent shares up 582% in bizarre and rapid turnaround for firm that had fallen on hard times
Allbirds, the maker of minimalist wool sneakers beloved by Silicon Valley, announced on Wednesday that it is leaving shoes behind and pivoting to artificial intelligence. The new focus and rebrand as “NewBird AI” sent the company’s stock up 582% as of mid-day during a flurry of trading.
The surging stock price and new direction is a bizarre, rapid turnaround for a company that had fallen into disrepair in recent years. Once valued at $4bn, Allbirds’ shares had lost 99% of their worth since 2021 and earlier this month the company announced plans for a $39m sale to brand management firm American Exchange Company.
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Allbirds had a hit a decade ago with its Wool Runner shoes, but after a $4 billion IPO in 2021, the business never turned a profit, and sales dropped nearly 50 percent between 2022 and 2025. The company recently announced it would sell off its name and assets for $39 million after closing the remaining stores. That shell listing, however, still has some use as the Financial Times points out, and now CEO Joe Vernachio has announced a plan to raise $50 million from an unnamed investor, which will turn NewBird AI into "a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider."
NewBird AI expects to use initial capit …
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