Allbirds, Inc. said on April 15 it signed a definitive agreement with an institutional investor for a $50 million convertible financing facility, a deal the company says is meant to fund a pivot away from footwear and into AI compute infrastructure. The company said the facility is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.
Under the plan, Allbirds expects to transform itself into a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider and to adopt the name NewBird AI. The company said it expects to use initial capital from the facility to buy high-performance GPU assets and deploy them for customers that need dedicated access to AI compute capacity.
The financing does not move on management approval alone. Conversion of the facility depends on stockholder approval at a Special Meeting of Stockholders anticipated for May 18, 2026, for stockholders of record as of April 13. If approved, the company also anticipates issuing a special dividend in the third quarter of 2026, with a record date expected on May 20.
Allbirds had already entered into a definitive agreement to sell the Allbirds brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group, which said it intends to continue building on the brand’s legacy and serving Allbirds customers. Chardan is serving as placement agent on the facility, while Holland & Hart LLP is acting as legal counsel to Allbirds.
The move comes as Allbirds points to a market it says is running short of the infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence. The company said global enterprise spending on AI services and data center investment are rising, GPU procurement lead times are lengthening for high-end hardware and North American data center vacancy rates have reached historic lows. It said compute capacity coming online through mid-2026 is already fully committed, leaving enterprises, AI developers and research organizations unable to secure the resources they need to build, train and run AI at scale.
That makes the next few weeks pivotal. The stockholder vote will determine whether Allbirds can complete the financing that underpins its reinvention, and whether the company can turn a consumer brand exit into a high-stakes bet on scarce AI infrastructure.
