News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: Footwear retailer Allbirds has announced the sale of its sneaker business and a transformation into an AI computing infrastructure company named "NewBird AI." This news drove the company's stock price to surge by approximately 300% at one point.According to the announcement, Allbirds has agreed to sell its footwear brand to the American Exchange Group. The company will use a $50 million convertible note financing round to deploy GPU computing power and build AI infrastructure. This financing amount is roughly double the company's market capitalization of $22 million prior to the announcement.This move reflects the strong market demand for AI computing resources and the current supply shortage. Following Bitcoin mining companies pivoting to High-Performance Computing (HPC), small-cap companies are also beginning to attempt to enter the AI infrastructure sector. However, the convertible note financing may be converted into equity in the future, potentially creating dilution pressure for existing shareholders. (CoinDesk)
According to The Block, AlphaTON Capital has announced plans to raise $43 million through a strategic partnership with Vertical Data Inc. to expand its AI compute infrastructure; the transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026. AlphaTON CEO Brittany Kaiser stated that the funding will be used to deploy additional NVIDIA B300 GPUs, with the core objective of advancing the convergence of AI, digital assets, and confidential computing—and scaling up the platform’s overall compute capacity. On the business front, AlphaTON not only holds a substantial amount of TON tokens as corporate treasury assets but also actively participates in building infrastructure for the Telegram and TON ecosystems, with key investment focus areas including Cocoon, Telegram’s decentralized AI platform. Background-wise, AlphaTON was formed through the restructuring and transformation of former biotech public company Portage Biotech Inc., which had previously focused on cancer therapy research; the company completed the spin-off of its cancer therapy subsidiary in February this year.
AlphaTON Capital (NASDAQ: ATON) announced a strategic AI hardware and financing agreement with Vertical Data Inc., with a total transaction value of approximately $43 million, expected to close in Q2 2026. The agreement centers on deploying high-performance GPU clusters powered by NVIDIA’s B300 architecture. Financing will be provided through Vertical Data’s GPUfinancing.com platform via an asset-backed, non-recourse structure and includes managed infrastructure services. This expansion will support AlphaTON’s business initiatives with partners including Telegram, Gamee, Animoca Brands, and Midnight Blockchain.