tech
Allbirds Renames Itself Smartbird in AI Pivot
Allbirds, the sustainable footwear company that went public at a $4.1 billion valuation in 2021, has officially renamed itself Smartbird and appointed a new chief executive to lead its pivot into AI compute. Shares surged more than 50% on Wednesday morning before pulling back.
TL;DR
- Allbirds has rebranded as Smartbird to pivot into AI compute.
- The company sold its shoe business for $39 million and is becoming a GPU cloud provider.
- Nadia Carlsten, with experience from Denmark's AI Centre and Amazon Web Services, is the new president and CEO.
- Smartbird plans to offer dedicated AI infrastructure as a managed service, leasing GPU compute to enterprises.
- The company has doubled its convertible financing facility to $100 million.
- Smartbird faces intense competition from established GPU cloud providers like CoreWeave and Nscale.
- The company currently has no data centers, customers, or revenue in its new AI business.
- Market analysts draw parallels to the dot-com bubble, highlighting the risks of AI stock valuations.
- Smartbird's success hinges on its ability to build a real business from scratch in a competitive market.