Allbirds goes soleless and pivots to AI

In this modern era where seemingly every tech company is defined by its relationship with AI (or lack thereof), Allbirds has made perhaps the most 180-degree corporate pivot we've ever seen. In case you're unfamiliar, Allbirds was a direct-to-consumer company that made wool sneakers popular among Silicon Valley types in the 2010s. Take note of the past tense, because the company announced in a statement this week that it is completely abandoning the shoe business to instead become an AI firm. An unspecified investor has agreed to pony up $50 million to fund the brand's pivot to AI compute infrastructure; the money will go towards data center tech instead of shoe production. Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google. Allbirds has also changed its name to NewBird AI. In a company statement, it proclaimed that it would help facilitate access to AI hardware for clients. "The rise of AI development and adoption has created unprecedented structural demand for specialized, high-performance compute that the market is struggling to meet...The result is a market where enterprises, AI developers, and research organizations are unable to secure the c