Allbirds Abandons Sneaker Business in AI Compute Pivot, Shares Surge 400%

Allbirds rose to prominence in 2015 with footwear made from natural materials such as merino wool. Its valuation reached $4 billion after its 2021 listing, but failed expansion efforts and cooling demand put pressure on the business. On March 30, 2026, the company agreed to sell its brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group for an estimated $39 million, pivoting into the fast-growing AI computing infrastructure market despite its high capital and execution barriers.

On June 17, 2026, Smartbird announced that it had completed the asset sale and changed its name. It appointed former AWS quantum computing product chief Nadia Carlsten as CEO to focus on GPU-as-a-Service, or GPUaaS, and AI cloud services. Its convertible financing facility was increased from $50 million to $100 million. BIRD shares closed up 39.09% at $5.48 that day, with 47.78 million shares traded.