The company formerly known as Allbirds has officially sold its footwear assets and rebranded as Smartbird, shifting its focus to AI infrastructure. Nadia Carlsten has been appointed CEO, aiming to build a new team and business model in the competitive AI market.
This transition represents one of the most significant corporate pivots during the AI boom, testing whether a public consumer company with declining market value can successfully reinvent itself as an AI infrastructure provider. It highlights the intense competition and capital access advantages for companies entering the AI market.
The company formerly known as Allbirds has officially completed its transformation into an AI infrastructure provider, rebranding as Smartbird. This dramatic pivot follows a significant decline in its market value, which fell from nearly $4 billion at its 2021 IPO to below $20 million by early 2025.
Nadia Carlsten has been appointed as the new CEO and president, replacing Joe Vernachio. Carlsten, who has a background in AI innovation and quantum computing services at Amazon Web Services, stated her intention to build a new team and business model from scratch, emphasizing speed as critical in the AI sector. She noted that the company's past as a shoe brand will soon be forgotten, drawing parallels to other companies like Slack and SpaceX that started in different industries before pivoting.
The company aims to compete in the AI infrastructure space against established players such as Amazon, CoreWeave, and Crusoe. Despite initial skepticism from some observers, the stock briefly surged 800% on the news of the pivot, though much of those gains have since been lost. Smartbird will continue to trade under the BIRD ticker symbol on the NASDAQ.