General Compute, an AI inference cloud startup, has secured a $400 million loan from Upper90, using inference-specific chips as collateral. This marks a potential first in the industry where such chips are used as collateral for financing. The move reflects a growing trend as markets respond to the rising costs of AI tools by seeking more cost-effective infrastructure solutions for running open-source models.
The financing is part of a broader shift toward infrastructure that supports open-source models at a lower cost compared to the latest large language models from major labs. Founded by CEO Finn Puklowski, General Compute raised a $15 million seed round in May to build an inference neocloud around silicon from SambaNova, an Intel-backed chipmaker. The company’s SN50 chips are designed for inference, offering power efficiency and avoiding the need for expensive water-cooling systems, enabling quicker deployment across a variety of data centers.
General Compute claims its new chips provide 16 times faster inference than GPU-based clouds. However, the challenge remains in securing a sufficient supply of these chips, especially for a new company. Upper90 co-founder and CEO Billy Libby, a former Goldman Sachs quantitative trader, had a playbook for this: in 2021, his firm financed GPU purchases for Crusoe, an energy-focused data center startup, which he believes was the first loan against the value of advanced chips.
Source: techcrunch
