Allbirds becomes Smartbird, betting on AI infrastructure after naming former Amazon AWS executive Nadia Carlsten as CEO

Allbirds has rebranded itself as Smartbird and named Nadia Carlsten, described as a former Amazon executive from the AWS organization, as its chief executive officer, indicating a shift away from shoes and toward artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The company made the changes public on Wednesday, according to market coverage that also reported a sharp rise in its shares following the announcements. The reporting framed Smartbird as a new identity for a business focused on AI infrastructure rather than consumer footwear.

The rebrand from Allbirds to Smartbird is the most visible step in that pivot. Rebranding at the corporate level is often used to reset how customers, partners, and investors interpret a company’s core products and long-term priorities, especially when the business model changes materially.

Carlsten’s appointment is the second major announcement. She was identified in the market report as having previously worked at Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of Amazon that provides infrastructure services used by enterprises and developers, including tools for running machine learning and AI workloads. Moving a leader with AWS experience into a new CEO role suggests Smartbird wants to translate cloud and infrastructure know-how into its next phase of growth.

While the market coverage connected Smartbird’s leadership shift to an AI infrastructure strategy, details about specific products, target customers, or technology stack were not provided in the information available here. For example, it was not clear from the coverage whether Smartbird is offering managed AI services, building software for enterprises to deploy models, selling infrastructure components, or partnering with cloud providers to deliver solutions.

Outside the immediate news, Amazon’s own public materials emphasize the breadth of AWS operations and its ongoing focus on serving enterprise workloads. The company’s newsroom, which tracks AWS initiatives and broader operational updates, provides context for why an executive associated with AWS is seen as relevant to an AI infrastructure pivot. However, Amazon did not describe a direct business relationship with Smartbird in the materials reviewed for this story.

The biggest uncertainty for investors and observers is what Smartbird will actually build and how quickly it can scale. Based on what was disclosed in the market report, the company did not outline measurable milestones such as expected revenue from AI offerings, timelines for new product launches, or the size and makeup of any go-to-market team dedicated to AI infrastructure.

What to watch next is whether Smartbird provides further disclosures that translate the strategy into specifics, including product definitions, customer pipeline indicates, and any partnerships. With a new name and a new CEO from the AWS ecosystem, the company is likely to face scrutiny on execution, competition, and how it differentiates in the crowded AI infrastructure market.