Allbirds

BIRD

Market cap $39M

Analysts at the world's biggest bank said crowding in meme stocks has approached close to the extremes reached after President Donald Trump imposed his ‘Liberation Day' tariffs

When Liza Moiseeva first heard that Allbirds was pivoting to AI, she thought it was satire.

Meme stocks are darlings of retail traders and go viral on social media. They typically are small, relatively illiquid — and unprofitable.

Once a trendy shoe brand among tech-oriented consumers, Allbirds NASDAQ: BIRD is undertaking a huge shift in its business model. The company has sold its shoe product portfolio and is now moving into the market's most discussed area: artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Allbirds stock initially rose 500% on news of its pivot into AI. The company's stock has lost nearly 98% of its value since its IPO in late 2021.

It can be hard to know when what goes up will come down.

A lasting end to the war in Iran would almost certainly be welcome news for tech companies' bottom lines.

It was quite the shocker to see shares of former Silicon Valley-loved footwear firm Allbirds (NASDAQ:BIRD) skyrocketing as much as 800% or so at its high point on Wednesday before closing quite a bit lower.

Allbirds plans to rebrand as NewBird AI and acquire GPUs to provide AI compute infrastructure after selling its footwear brand for $39 million to American Exchange Group.

Allbirds stock surged over 580% after the company announced a pivot to become an AI business. But what's really behind the move—and why are investors rewarding it?