Allbirds becomes Smartbird, names new CEO amid AI shift

June 17 (UPI) -- Former shoe company Allbirds officially became Smartbird on Wednesday, making another move in its pivot toward a new life as an artificial intelligence company.

The company, once known for its sustainable shoes made from natural materials, surprised many when it announced its move toward AI about two months ago. It originally rebranded as NewBird AI as it revealed a $50 million deal with an unnamed investor, with which it will obtain "high-performance GPU assets."

The company also completed the sale of its footwear brand and assets to American Exchange Group on Wednesday and named a new president and chief operating officer, Nadia Carlsten, it said in a press release.

The release called Carlsten "a visionary and builder" and said she formerly served as CEO of artificial intelligence company DCAI. She has also led Amazon's Web Services quantum computing center and worked at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, CNBC reported.

Carlsten replaces Joe Vernachio, who is resigning from the company and the board of directors.

Shares in the company soared about 34% Wednesday. The initial announcement of the pivot to AI had led shares to jump nearly 600%, but that had largely faded before Wednesday, MarketWatch reported.

The company said in its press release that it is "in active discussions with prospective customers across its target verticals and is currently designing its first cluster deployments."

"Smartbird is entering the market at a pivotal moment in the evolution of AI infrastructure," Carlsten said in the press release. "AI is rapidly becoming mission-critical for organizations across every industry, yet many organizations lack a practical path to deploy and operate the dedicated infrastructure these workloads require.

"There is a clear opportunity to meet the growing need for enterprise-grade AI infrastructure that delivers control and performance without the capital and operational burden of hardware ownership."

Allbirds closed its physical full-price U.S. stores in February. Founded in 2015, the company was once valued at $4 billion but faltered after it went public in 2021. It was valued at $21 million before its AI announcement in April.

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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 11:38 AM.