Former shoe company Allbirds transforms into AI infrastructure firm Smartbird

When Allbirds announced its pivot to AI in April, it seemed like a Silicon Valley joke come to life. The direct-to-consumer shoe company, whose flimsy sneakers helped define the Valley's style, followed the GameStop playbook: a struggling public company latches onto a hot trend to boost its stock price. It worked. The company sold its shoe business for $43 million, raised another $100 million from the stock market, and is now called Smartbird.

Smartbird's new CEO, Nadia Carlsten, a former AWS executive with an engineering PhD, started yesterday. Her first task is recruiting a leadership team and finding an office. Smartbird aims to be an AI infrastructure provider, targeting carefully managed deployments. Unlike neoclouds that arbitrage chip prices, Smartbird focuses on customers needing direct control over servers and data sovereignty—such as pharmaceutical, energy, financial, and public sector firms.

Carlsten could not yet estimate the market size, noting it is nascent as many companies are still piloting AI tools. She believes Smartbird competes not with hyperscalers or neoclouds but with internal company projects. Established players like Hewlett Packard and Equinix already offer similar services. Carlsten expects to have compute clusters deployed for several customers by year-end, with needs ranging from hundreds to thousands of chips, not millions—emphasizing agility and control over scale.

During the transition, Allbirds lost its public benefit corporation (PBC) status, which had been tied to sustainability commitments. Carlsten will receive a $700,000 annual salary and about $9 million in stock. She insists the pivot was carefully considered, not a mere fad, aiming to build a sustainable niche business.