Allbirds has completed its transformation from shoemaker to AI infrastructure provider, announcing a name change to Smartbird and appointing Nadia Carlsten as CEO. Carlsten, previously head of AWS’s quantum computing center and former CEO of AI infrastructure firm DCAI, replaces Joe Vernachio effective immediately. DCAI operates the Gefion supercomputer and recently partnered with Nvidia.

Shares of BIRD surged 34% on Wednesday. The pivot began in April, when the company rebranded to NewBird AI after selling its footwear assets to American Exchange Group for $39 million and closing all U.S. full-price stores in February. The initial rebrand sent market cap up sevenfold.

Smartbird joins a wave of companies pivoting to AI infrastructure — a pattern reminiscent of the crypto and blockchain boom. CoreWeave, which went public last year, followed a similar path from crypto mining to AI compute. From a systems perspective, the playbook is familiar: shed legacy assets, acquire or partner for compute capacity, and hire leadership with deep ties to hyperscaler ecosystems.

For data and ML engineers, the shift raises practical questions. Allbirds had no AI infrastructure experience — its core competency was sustainable footwear. Building a competitive AI compute business requires not just capital but expertise in networking, GPU cluster orchestration, power management, and customer SLAs. Carlsten’s background suggests Smartbird will target high-performance computing and quantum-adjacent workloads, but execution risk remains high.

Founded in 2015 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger, Allbirds went public in 2021 with shares hitting $577.80 before declining nearly 99% amid competition and shifting consumer trends. The pivot is a bet that AI infrastructure margins can outperform sneakers — a gamble that, so far, the market is buying.

Source: CNBC