Allbirds officially changed its name to Smartbird on June 17 as part of a strategic pivot to artificial intelligence compute infrastructure and hardware [1, 2, 3]. The company appointed Nadia Carlsten, former CEO of the Danish Center for AI Innovation with experience at Amazon Web Services quantum computing and SandboxAQ, as its new CEO and board member, replacing Joe Vernachio who resigned earlier this year [1, 2, 3].
Smartbird completed the sale of its footwear brand and related assets to American Exchange Group for $39 million in May after announcing the shift away from footwear manufacturing in April [1, 2, 3]. The footwear business had been a core part of Allbirds, which was valued near $4 billion after its 2021 initial public offering but had fallen below $20 million in market value by early 2025 prior to the pivot [2, 3].
The company briefly rebranded as NewBird AI during the transition in April but finalized the Smartbird name this week [1, 2, 3]. Alongside the name change, Smartbird announced an increase in convertible financing from $50 million to $100 million to support its AI infrastructure strategy [2].
Smartbird’s stock ticker BIRD surged sharply on the announcement today, with reports varying between a 34% rise and an intraday peak of 49% gain before settling slightly lower [1, 2]. The stock traded as high as $5.90 shortly after market open [2].
On the leadership change, Carlsten acknowledged her fresh start, saying, "I'm more of a high heels person myself," and added she was "blissfully unaware of all things Allbirds" prior to joining [3].
Smartbird’s move signals a full exit from its legacy footwear operation to focus on the expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure sector. The next major milestone for Smartbird will be the deployment of its AI compute hardware offerings, funded in part by its expanded $100 million convertible financing.
