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Computing power, the de-facto driving force behind the whirlwind of generative AI progress over the past two years, is harder to come by than people think. While there is an abundance of it serving as the foundation for innovative AI use cases, the entire industry is relying on clusters of high-end GPUs to keep the wheels turning.
To no one’s surprise, these GPUs and their compute have become hot commodities. As tech companies of all sizes clamor for more compute power to fuel their AI endeavors, manufacturers like NVIDIA have skyrocketed in status for their GPU manufacturing capabilities.
That being said, GPUs have risen in scarcity precisely because of how complicated their manufacturing processes are—meaning that only those companies with the most resources at their disposal can utilize their compute power. While this seems like a classic issue of demand outweighing supply, gaps in computational power can lead to bigger issues down the line and exclude regular investors from participating in this market. It also means that startups, essential to pushing the envelope of progress, are barred from continuing research and development due to stratospheric costs.
With tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) emerging as a popular use case to bring blockchain technology to assets with fundamental value, there has been a dialogue surrounding how to also blend blockchain effectively with AI.
Exabits, a compute-base layer platform transforming high-end GPU clusters into accessible investment assets, demonstrates one of the most enticing and practical applications of asset tokenization in AI. Recently closing $15 million in a seed funding round, boosting its valuation to $150 million, the company offers participants a new model to gain GPU ownership by fractionalizing high-value compute assets through blockchain-based tokens.
What does that look like in practice? Exabits enables qualified participants to gain direct exposure to GPU compute and participate in a liquid market that enhances decentralized ownership. Participants are beneficiaries of the rising value of compute assets and the rewards of contributing and participating in the Exabits ecosystem.
“At Exabits, our goal is to redefine the AI compute landscape by positioning compute resources as valuable financial assets,” says Dr. Hoansoo Lee, Co-Founder of Exabits on the company’s aspirations. “The performance of GPU compute has outpaced both Bitcoin and gold, demonstrating a clear upward trajectory. AI’s impact on the world is only scratching the surface, and we are excited to be at the forefront of this evolution, driving growth and market traction through the development of our advanced infrastructure and unique GPU tokenization model.”
Exabits’s founders and team all come from a diverse background of expertise and experience in compute and AI, including impressive academic credentials. Since its launch, Exabits has been incubated by several prestigious institutions, including the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, Berkeley Xcelerator, and is the first and only blockchain project incubated by the Harvard Innovation Labs.
Continuing its streak of partnerships with leading research institutions, Exabits recently collaborated with Seoul National University, providing computing and processing power to the Vehicle Intelligence Lab to support research in AI-based autonomous driving.
Hack VC, along with several other investors led the funding round, which follows a previous round led by Portal Ventures. Exabits plans to strategically allocate these funds towards research and development, brand creation, technology improvement, and operational excellence.
Catrina Wang, General Partner at Portal Ventures, commented on their support for Exabits, stating: “Exabits has distinguished itself among 30+ GPU projects through its exceptional dominance on the supply side. Accessing and securing GPU supply is crucial for igniting the flywheel effect and bridging the supply-side moat to the demand side. Exabits excels in this area, thanks to its founders’ decades of experience in the cloud computing space. We are extremely proud to be day-one backers of this project.”
Thanks to its proprietary software and hardware, Exabits provides a trusted base layer provider for decentralized marketplaces and Web 2.0 companies. Over the past 12 months, Exabit’s revenue has multiplied, growing at an average of 300 percent each quarter, resulting in a total of $10 million in ARR.
Commenting on the promise that Exabits brings to AI and blockchain, Hack VC’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner Ed Roman said: “What impressed me about Exabits is its proprietary technology for optimizing AI compute and its deep understanding of the compute industry. As a foundational builder of AI infrastructure, they have the potential to become the base layer of the industry, which presents a vast market opportunity.”
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
