Struggling shoe brand makes AI pivot and sees stock rise 300%

• Allbirds announced a pivot from shoe manufacturing to artificial intelligence, causing its shares to surge over 300%.
• The company's stock price jumped from under $3 to over $10 following the surprising announcement.
• The Allbirds brand and legacy will continue under the ownership of American Exchange Group but continue under the name NewBird AI, the company said in a press release on Wednesday. Allbirds closed all of its U.S. stores in February.
• “The Company will initially seek to acquire high-performance, low-latency AI compute hardware and provide access under long-term lease arrangements, meeting customer demand that spot markets and hyperscalers are unable to reliably service,” the company said.
• Allbirds was founded in 2015 by former professional soccer player Tim Brown and renewable energy expert Joey Zwillinger.