GoPro CEO Buys $20 Million In Stock To Keep The Company Afloat

GoPro is in trouble again, and its founder is putting his own money on the line to buy the company time. Nicholas Woodman, GoPro’s founder and CEO, is loaning the company $20 million through a stock purchase.

The move comes weeks after GoPro filed a “going concern” warning with the SEC, telling investors that without new financing or a strategic deal, the company “may be required to significantly reduce, restructure, cease operations, or seek protection under the Federal bankruptcy laws.” That filing followed the board’s confirmation that it was exploring a potential sale or merger, a process Woodman has said he “fully supports.”

Announcing the loan, GoPro confirmed the company has withdrawn its full-year guidance while it evaluates a possible sale. The loan is due in two years at 6.5 percent interest, and if GoPro is sold, the buyer inherits the agreement.

“An independent committee of the board of directors evaluated a range of financing options and concluded this structure offered the most favorable terms for GoPro and our shareholders,” Woodman says. “My financing reflects my enthusiasm for GoPro and its several go-forward opportunities. I continue to strongly support the board’s evaluation of strategic alternatives, a process we announced on May 11, 2026, and which continues to progress.”

It’s also not the first time Woodman has personally propped up the company. He went without a salary for part of 2025 as GoPro cut costs. He’d also bought $2 million of GoPro stock at $1.77 a share back in November 2025 to signal confidence in the company.

GoPro Has Been Here Before

GoPro’s current crisis isn’t its first brush with disaster. The company’s most infamous stumble was the Karma drone. Released in 2016 to compete with DJI, GoPro had to recall roughly 2,500 units after they lost power mid-flight and fell out of the sky. The drone limped back to market in 2017, but by January 2018, GoPro killed the Karma entirely.

That wasn’t an isolated bad year, either. GoPro had already laid off around 270 people in 2017 alone, on top of shutting down its short-lived entertainment division. And then in 2020, the pandemic hit, and the company went through another restructuring, cutting more than 200 employees.

Back when GoPro announced its strategic review, we noted the company was leaning on its “24 years” of technology, IP, and manufacturing know-how to court buyers even as it quietly explored a pivot into defense and aerospace, a sign of just how far the company was willing to look beyond consumer cameras for a lifeline. And even the product lineup has been showing the strain: last year, GoPro skipped a new Hero Black for the first time since 2016, leaning instead on the MAX2 360 camera and the Lit Hero to carry the year, while insisting the flagship line “isn’t dead.”

Fast forward to now, and the pattern looks familiar: declining unit sales, mounting losses, and repeated rounds of belt-tightening. GoPro cut a quarter of its staff in November 2024, then reduced headcount by roughly another 25 percent in April 2026. In 2025 alone, the company posted a $93.5 million net loss on top of a $432.3 million loss the year before, while its cash reserves shrank to under $50 million.

Layered on top of slowing demand from smartphone competition and aggressive pricing from DJI and Insta360, GoPro has also been hit by the AI-driven memory chip shortage: an 80 to 110 percent jump in memory hardware costs, alongside reduced supply from suppliers amid the broader AI data crisis.

Woodman founded GoPro back in 2002 after a surfing trip left him frustrated he couldn’t capture footage of himself in the water. The company went public in 2014 and once carried an $11 billion valuation. Whether his latest personal bet is enough to buy GoPro time for a sale, a turnaround, or something else entirely remains to be seen.

[via FStoppers]

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