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Glonghui, June 18 — Formerly a popular sneaker manufacturer, Allbirds has officially rebranded as Smartbird and appointed former AWS executive Nadia Carlsten as Chief Executive Officer, marking the company’s complete shift from footwear to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure services. Carlsten has also joined the company’s board of directors and taken on the roles of President and CEO, succeeding the departing Joe Vernachio. In March this year, the company sold its brand and footwear assets to American Exchange Group for $39 million. After announcing its transformation to AI infrastructure computing in April, the company’s stock price surged more than fivefold at one point. Smartbird stated that it now positions itself as an AI infrastructure provider, offering AI infrastructure services in the form of managed services, enabling enterprises to avoid bearing significant upfront equipment costs. The company said it is actively negotiating with potential clients and designing the first deployments of AI infrastructure clusters. The company also announced it has expanded its convertible financing arrangement from $50 million to $100 million. The funds will be used to purchase graphics processing units (GPUs) to support its AI infrastructure business.

Glonghui June 18｜Affin Hwang IB analysts stated in a report that uncertainties surrounding the US-Iran conflict and the upcoming state elections have cast a shadow over Malaysia's stock market prospects for the third quarter. However, they remain cautiously optimistic, believing these concerns will ease and support a recovery in the fourth quarter. They indicated that the prospect of US interest rates remaining high for a longer period, along with renewed outflows of foreign capital, is expected to keep the market volatile in the short term. They believe that market performance in the second half of the year will be driven by three key factors: sustained investment growth and infrastructure upgrades; state elections, which serve as a barometer of the political climate; and new institutional capital inflows to companies under the government’s corporate value enhancement plan. Affin Hwang maintains an “overweight” rating on the Malaysian market and keeps its KLCI target for the end of 2026 unchanged at 1,780 points.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Arthur Hayes purchased 1,500 ETH from an exchange, worth 2.63 million US dollars, and may continue to buy more ETH.