Allbirds Used to Make Viral Wool Sneakers. Now It’s an AI Company Called ‘Smartbird.’
The company behind the once-viral wool sneaker sold off the shoe brand entirely, changed its name and has become an AI service.
Remember Allbirds, the comfy wool sneakers every tech bro wore to the office around 2019? They’re All-Gone. The company has officially renamed itself Smartbird, sold off the entire Allbirds shoe brand and reinvented itself as an AI company, according to .
The new Smartbird plans to sell “AI infrastructure as a service,” which essentially means renting out the computing power companies need to run AI without buying their own hardware. To run it, the company hired Nadia Carlsten, who previously led Amazon Web Services’ quantum computing center and ran Denmark’s first AI supercomputer. The old CEO is out, the company doubled its financing to $100 million, and the stock jumped nearly 40% on the news.
If this feels familiar, it should. Struggling companies have been latching onto buzzy trends forever. Dot-com companies did it. Crypto companies did it. In February, a tiny karaoke company’s stock soared the moment it mentioned . Smartbird is just the latest to discover that two letters can change everything.
Remember Allbirds, the comfy wool sneakers every tech bro wore to the office around 2019? They’re All-Gone. The company has officially renamed itself Smartbird, sold off the entire Allbirds shoe brand and reinvented itself as an AI company, according to .
The new Smartbird plans to sell “AI infrastructure as a service,” which essentially means renting out the computing power companies need to run AI without buying their own hardware. To run it, the company hired Nadia Carlsten, who previously led Amazon Web Services’ quantum computing center and ran Denmark’s first AI supercomputer. The old CEO is out, the company doubled its financing to $100 million, and the stock jumped nearly 40% on the news.
If this feels familiar, it should. Struggling companies have been latching onto buzzy trends forever. Dot-com companies did it. Crypto companies did it. In February, a tiny karaoke company’s stock soared the moment it mentioned . Smartbird is just the latest to discover that two letters can change everything.
