--- title: "Allbirds Stock Now Crashing as Reality Sets in About Its Delusional AI Pivot" description: "The mad scrabble to get in on the latest AI startup — struggling shoe company Allbirds — has since come to a \"screeching halt.\"" date: "2026-04-16" modified: "2026-04-16" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/allbirds-stock-now-crashing" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # Allbirds Stock Now Crashing as Reality Sets in About Its Delusional AI Pivot ![The mad scrabble to get in on the latest AI startup — struggling shoe company Allbirds — has since come to a "screeching halt."]() *Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Allbirds* Tech bro sneaker company Allbirds [made a huge splash]() yesterday when it [announced]() a baffling pivot to AI infrastructure — news that was met with a mix of incredulity and [ridicule](). The company's blindsiding metamorphosis into what it's calling "NewBird AI" had investors leaping from their office chairs, sending shares surging by over 700 percent on Wednesday. That's despite Allbirds' core business being at death's door. In its final throes, the company sold off its intellectual property and other assets for a measly $39 million mere weeks ago, leaving its once lofty $4 billion market cap five years ago long behind. But don't break out the champagne quite yet. The rally subsequently came to a "screeching halt," as [*Bloomberg* put it](), with shares sinking a dismal 35 percent on Thursday. In other words, [possibly ketamine-crazed]() Wall Street bros realized the morning after that a struggling shoe company may not be able to prop up a trillion-dollar industry with its promises of buying up impossible-to-get AI chips. The bizarre stock market performance perfectly highlighted persistent concerns over an AI bubble, with business fundamentals taking a backseat as investors bet big on a bright and profitable future that may — or may not — still be years away. Some investors were baffled why an ailing shoe brand got so much attention in the first place. "This has the feel of a meme stock, where emotions take over and logic and reason get thrown out the window," 50 Park Investments chief executive Adam Sarhan told *Bloomberg*. "That the market actually rewarded the stock yesterday when it doesn’t seem to have any kind of actual AI edge tells me that froth, specifically AI froth, is picking up." "Between the risk of a huge reversal or a short squeeze, I can’t see any reason why you’d want to play this," Sarhan added. (A short squeeze is a rapid increase in the price of a stock primarily being driven by an excess of short sellers buying back their shares to cover their losses, not any underlying business fundamentals.) "The vast majority of times, these things end in tears," he added. The spike is reminiscent of other companies that have announced they were jumping on the blockchain or cryptocurrency bandwagon in past years, temporarily resulting in a major surge in interest from investors. Case in point, the beverage brand Long Island Iced Tea [announced]() in 2017 that it was pivoting to become "Long Blockchain Corp," sending its stock leaping by more than 200 percent. It didn't end well: the company's shares were [delisted in early 2021](), with the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing it of never having actually pivoted to blockchain tech. (The SEC also [charged three people]() with insider trading in connection with the company.) Allbirds may similarly be overindexing on hype alone. "The market is not pricing risk," Siebert Financial CIO Mark Malek [wrote in a note](). "It is pricing narrative. It is pricing the word 'AI' the same way it once priced the word ‘blockchain’ and before that the suffix '.com.'" **More on the hype:** [*What It Really Means That a Failing Shoe Brand “Pivoted to AI” and Its Stock Soared 700 Percent*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()