The public company formerly known as Allbirds has completed the sale of its footwear business, changed its name to Smartbird, and appointed former AWS executive Nadia Carlsten to build a new AI infrastructure operation.
Smartbird plans to provide dedicated computing clusters for companies that want more control over their AI workloads than public cloud services typically offer. The company is starting the business largely from scratch, with Carlsten’s initial priorities including recruiting a leadership team and developing its first customer deployments.
Smartbird Targets Private AI Infrastructure
The company plans to offer dedicated AI infrastructure as a managed service, covering hardware procurement, deployment, operations, and future upgrades. Customers would receive the control and security of private computing clusters without purchasing and managing the equipment themselves.
Carlsten said the service is intended for organisations that place a high priority on data sovereignty, security, and direct control over the infrastructure running their models. Potential customers include businesses in pharmaceuticals, energy, financial services, and the public sector.
The strategy differs from large cloud providers and neocloud companies that compete primarily through scale and lower computing prices. Smartbird expects many customers to require clusters containing hundreds or thousands of chips rather than extremely large deployments.
The company said it is already discussing potential projects with customers and designing its first clusters. Carlsten expects several deployments to be operating by the end of 2026.
Carlsten Begins Building a New Team
Carlsten previously served as chief executive of Danish AI infrastructure organisation DCAI, where she helped launch a sovereign AI supercomputer in partnership with Nvidia. She also held leadership roles at SandboxAQ and Amazon Web Services, where she worked on advanced and quantum computing products.
Smartbird will pay Carlsten a base salary of $700,000, with an annual performance bonus targeted at the same amount. She also received 1.53 million restricted stock units as part of her appointment.
The company’s regulatory filing valued the equity award at roughly $9 million based on its share price when the agreement was announced.
Footwear Sale Funds New Direction
Smartbird completed the sale of the Allbirds brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group for $39 million. The Allbirds name and shoe business will continue under the new owner.
The remaining public company expanded its convertible financing facility from $50 million to as much as $100 million to support its AI infrastructure strategy. Its shares will continue trading on Nasdaq under the BIRD ticker.
Smartbird also removed its public benefit corporation status, which had reflected Allbirds’ earlier sustainability commitments. The change leaves the company focused on building a commercially viable computing business from the capital and public listing left behind after the footwear sale.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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