New York, June 18, 2026, 05:07 (EDT)
- Allbirds, which rebranded to Smartbird, ended Wednesday’s session up 39.09% at $5.48. The company appointed Nadia Carlsten as CEO and wrapped up its move into AI.
- The company sold its Allbirds footwear assets and increased its convertible financing facility to $100 million, doubling the previous amount.
- Nasdaq hadn’t opened for regular trading in New York. U.S. equity markets are closed Friday for Juneteenth.
Smartbird shares rallied Wednesday following the company’s rebrand from Allbirds and the appointment of ex-AWS executive Nadia Carlsten as CEO, as the company shifts focus to AI infrastructure. Shares on the Nasdaq closed at $5.48, up 39.09% according to Google Finance.
Investors aren’t just seeing the company as a struggling shoe brand anymore. Now they’re looking at whether a small public firm with a shaky retail past can make it in leasing or running AI infrastructure — the hardware that powers artificial intelligence models.
Nasdaq hadn’t opened for regular trading in New York. Regular hours run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Another detail: The exchange plans to close U.S. equity and options trading on Friday, June 19, 2026, for Juneteenth, according to Nasdaq.
Smartbird said Wednesday it finished selling the Allbirds brand and its footwear assets. The company has also changed its name from Allbirds, Inc. and doubled its convertible financing facility to $100 million from $50 million. Convertible financing can turn into equity, which gives flexibility but can dilute shareholders.
Carlsten will replace Joe Vernachio, who is stepping down as CEO and leaving the board. Annie Mitchell stays on as CFO. Lily Yan Hughes is now chair of the board, the company said.
Carlsten said in the company’s statement, “Smartbird is entering the market at a pivotal moment.” She said a lot of organizations don’t have a practical way to set up dedicated infrastructure for AI workloads. Smartbird also said it is talking to potential customers and working on its first cluster deployments. A cluster refers to a group of connected computer servers, often with GPUs, or graphics processing units, which are common in AI. Smartbird, Inc.
Smartbird is going after middle-market customers, not taking on the cloud giants directly. Carlsten told Business Insider the company isn’t “competing head-on” with hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, or big AI-cloud names such as CoreWeave. She said some customers want control and single-tenant infrastructure. “In a few months, people won’t even remember the shoes,” Carlsten said. Business Insider
Allbirds moved to leave footwear back in March after agreeing to sell its intellectual property plus some assets and liabilities to American Exchange Group for about $39 million. Vernachio said then that the deal would help the brand “to thrive in the years ahead.” Smartbird, Inc.
Allbirds shares jumped more than five-fold after the April AI move, Reuters said. Wednesday’s rally put the stock up around 25% on the year. Still, BIRD’s market cap is less than $50 million, according to recent data.
But the risks are obvious. Smartbird has to show it can get customers, secure pricey AI hardware, and pay for growth while Amazon, Microsoft, and CoreWeave have scale and the supplier and customer connections. The company flagged risks like whether it can carry out the new plan, its future finances, and if it can raise more money.
Traders are now looking past the Allbirds name. The focus has shifted to Smartbird and if it can back up Wednesday’s AI-driven jump with contracts, real sales, and enough cash to keep moving before patience runs out.
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