Allbirds shares are pumping again as the Sneaker Company completes its AI pivot and rebrands as Smartbird

Allbirds, the sneaker company once known for its wool shoes and sustainability-driven brands, is ditching its footwear roots entirely and reinventing itself as an artificial intelligence infrastructure company under a new name: Smartbird.

The San Francisco-based company, which trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol BIRD, He said Wednesday It completed the sale of Allbirds, a shoe and apparel company First announced in AprilNadia Carlsten, a veteran of the artificial intelligence and advanced computing industry, has been appointed as the new president, CEO, and board member.

Investors reacted positively to the latest update, with BIRD shares rising 52% on the day to a recent price of $5.99. Back in April, shares rose from $2.49 to $24.31 before giving up most of the gains. However, the BIRD is still up 46% year-to-date.

Carlsten arrives from DCAI, a GPU computing infrastructure company, where she served as CEO and helped launch an artificial intelligence supercomputer with Nvidia. Her resume also includes stints at Google spinoff SandboxAQ and Amazon Web Services, where she worked on launching Amazon’s quantum computing service. She holds degrees in chemistry and physics from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

She replaces Joe Vernacchio, who is stepping down from the company and its board of directors. Independent director Lily-Jan Hughes has been appointed chair of the board, while Annie Mitchell remains chief financial officer. Allbirds previously planned to rebrand to NewBird AI before settling on the final Smartbird name.

“Smartbird is entering the market at a pivotal moment in the evolution of AI infrastructure,” Carlsten said in a statement. “AI is quickly becoming critical for organizations in every industry, yet many organizations lack a practical path to deploying and operating the custom infrastructure these workloads require.”

“There is a clear opportunity to address the growing need for enterprise-level AI infrastructure that provides control and performance without the capital and operational burden of hardware ownership,” she added. “With a differentiated strategy, significant capital, and the opportunity to build an exceptional team, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on one of the most significant infrastructure opportunities of the next decade.”

As part of the transformation, the company expanded its convertible financing facility from $50 million to $100 million, giving Smartbird additional capital to build what it describes as managed AI computing clusters intended for enterprise customers. The company said it is in active conversations with potential customers and is designing its first mass deployments.