Allbirds

When Allbirds pivoted, one thing that went by the wayside was its public benefit corporation (PBC) status, which had been intended to enshrine the sustainability commitments that were part of the shoe company’s pitch. PBC charters are often used by companies to highlight non-financial promises. OpenAI, for example, is a PBC with a focus on AI safety. This change of direction, however, suggests PBCs are hardly ironclad.

The filing said stockholders would vote next month on proposed changes to the company, including removing environmental commitments written into its charter and revoking its status as a public benefit corporation. PBCs are for-profit corporations intended to produce a public benefit and operate responsibly and sustainably.

The plan, announced yesterday, is to change its name to NewBird AI and spend $50 million from an unnamed investor on specialized chips called GPUs, which it will then lease to other companies. The move is a high-risk bid to save the company’s stock, and it has already kind of worked: Allbirds’ value increased by more than 600 percent yesterday. Although businesses reorient themselves around AI all the time, Allbirds is trying a far more extreme version of the strategy. At first glance, it might look like a cynical (and very possibly doomed) cash grab. But for a flailing shoe company, an AI rebrand might also be an escape hatch.

After agreeing to sell all its assets last month for less than 1 percent of its previous $4 billion valuation, the shoe company Allbirds announced on Wednesday that it would “pivot its business” to artificial intelligence.

When a model tried them on, employees noticed they were see-through. “I can see your underwear,” one exclaimed. By then, Allbirds had already ordered tens of thousands of pairs—many of which were unsellable, according to people familiar with the situation.

Allbirds dropped ‘sustainable’ claim from IPO after SEC objection