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A decade ago, if you said GoPro was the Allbirds of the action sports world, it would’ve been a compliment to both the action-sports camera company and the one hawking sustainable sneakers.
But in 2026, it means that the companies have effectively become public shells for vaguely worded AI and data center plays.
To that end, GoPro stock soared about 50% on Tuesday before settling and is up nearly 100% over the last week after Starman Optical, a photonics company, agreed to acquire every Red Bull drinker’s favorite helmet-mounted camera in a $285 million transaction, or about $1.14 per share. GoPro shareholders will retain about 10% of the company, and the deal will also wipe about $92 million of debt off the balance sheet.
The deal’s expected to close by the end of this year, the companies say.
Starman says it wants to pivot GoPro into data centers, defense tech, and other AI infrastructure, a laundry list of market fads that will make any meme-stock investor’s ears perk up between Reddit tabs. You’ll remember a similar line when Allbirds earlier this year sold off its shoe brand and pivoted its public shell to NewBird AI.
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And meme stocks come with influencers. YouTuber Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) disclosed he bought an 8.5% stake in GoPro just a day ahead of the deal’s announcement, sending shares soaring.
Whatever connections you want to make between insiders buying at the right time and a well-publicized pivot to AI following an acquisition announcement within 24 hours are your own.
The deal comes after years of struggles for GoPro, which hit a stride in the early 2010s as surfers, skiers, cyclists, and other outdoor aficionados wanted to capture their exploits for YouTube. But the outdoor influencer space quickly got professionalized, and YouTube impressions and resulting dollars started to only flow toward high production, TV-like setups. And vast improvements in phone camera quality and durability made buying a special camera for regular vacationers and weekend warriors who just want to share their powder days with friends rather than brands a far tougher sell.
GoPro’s stock fell from a high of over $98 per share shortly after it went public in late 2014 to around $1.21 today, wiping over $10 billion off the company’s market cap.