A company that once sold wool sneakers to eco-conscious millennials is now betting its entire future on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Allbirds, the sustainable footwear brand that went public in 2021 to much fanfare, has officially rebranded to Smartbird, Inc., appointed former Amazon executive Nadia Carlsten as CEO, and sold off its consumer brand entirely.

The transformation, announced on June 17, 2026, sent shares surging over 30%. The stock still trades under its original ticker, BIRD, on the Nasdaq.

From wool shoes to AI servers

Carlsten takes over as president, CEO, and board member, replacing Joe Vernachio. Her background includes stints at Amazon Web Services and DCAI, giving her the kind of enterprise cloud credentials that Smartbird desperately needs as it tries to establish itself in the managed AI infrastructure space.

The company simultaneously announced an expansion of its convertible financing facility from $50 million to $100 million, doubling its financial runway for the AI buildout.

The leadership shakeup goes beyond just the CEO chair. Lily Yan Hughes was appointed as board chairperson, while Annie Mitchell stays on as CFO.

The managed AI infrastructure play

Smartbird’s stated focus is on providing dedicated AI infrastructure as a managed service. Instead of companies building and maintaining their own GPU clusters and data centers for AI workloads, Smartbird wants to handle that complexity for them.

The 30% stock surge tells you that the market is, at minimum, intrigued. Investors who had been holding BIRD through its painful decline as a footwear company suddenly have exposure to a completely different business.

Smartbird’s $100 million convertible facility is a rounding error compared to what AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure have spent on AI infrastructure. Convertible financing also comes with strings attached — that $100 million facility will likely dilute existing shareholders if and when it converts to equity.