Everyone is talking about AI these days. From large language models to images and videos, we are quickly seeing AI creations integrate with our everyday lives. With increasing adoption of AI, demand for computing power and infrastructure to operate and maintain large language models powering AI  is also likely to boom. These infrastructure tools, such as GPUs, servers, data centers and bandwidth, are expensive and often require large up-front payment. 

For many builders who are just starting in the AI space, especially smaller teams with limited  access to financial resources, this presents a huge barrier to entry. Traditional financial systems aren’t designed to support smaller AI operators, banks may be unwilling to lend them large amounts of money, and venture capital is often slow and dilutive. This is where USD.AI comes in.

USD.AI is building a financial layer for decentralized infrastructure. This may sound like a bunch of nothing to those who don’t quite understand, so let’s break it down. 

What is USD.AI?

USD.AI is a yield-bearing, synthetic dollar protocol that is backed by infrastructure that offers financing to “sub-$20M” compute operators, the longtail of AI builders excluded from conventional leasing and financing. 

The protocol has three key aspects, USDai, sUSDai, and yield. Users interested in learning more about these tokens can visit docs.usd.ai. 

Onchain Ownership Standards

USD.AI created a standard called CALIBER, a collateralized asset ledger built to encode insurance, bailment, evaluation, and redemption directly onchain, allowing for direct asset ownership, enforceable redemption, and integrated insurance for GPU and AI hardware. 

Once the hardware is tokenized, AI builders as borrowers will be able to freely borrow directly from USD.AI, using their GPUs (now represented as Electronic Document of Title NFTs) as collateral. Once borrowers post their NFT collateral into the pool, they will be able to access  their loan in USDT. Borrowers then make payments every 30 days to keep their loan current. 

Thanks to CALIBER, this model of GPU tokenization combined with 24/7 access to global debt capital onchain unlocks liquidity for AI builders without requiring GPU owners to completely sell their hardware or give away equity, giving AI builders more financial flexibility.

Why Arbitrum?

Bringing real-world assets onchain requires being connected to deep DeFi liquidity. Which is why USD.AI has been built on Arbitrum technology. 

Arbiturm offers full EVM compatibility, meaning that it can seamlessly integrate with major DeFi players in the web3 space. In fact, Arbitrum’s RWA TVL has been continuously growing over the past few months, recently crossing $355 million. In July alone, the chain processed  $7.18 billion in organic stablecoin volume, making up 43% of all stablecoin-related activity across EVM chains (excluding Ethereum). 

By anchoring USD.AI on Arbitrum, users will be able to tap into a robust, low-cost blockchain environment that is deeply connected with existing DeFi infrastructure and liquidity pools. 

Normally it’d take at least $250,000 to structure a loan for a borrower operating a server of at least 8 GPUs, which makes all sub $50m loans uneconomical for traditional lending providers. By lowering the barriers to entry to lending by facilitating financing on Arbitrum, USD.AI enables more scalable and accessible financing for thousands of  longtail AI builders. 

What’s Next?

USD.AI is already live in Beta with over $50mn in TVL, it will soon be launching mainnet on Arbitrum.  USDai will also have pools live on Uniswap, Balancer, and Curve. Part of this launch is a unique points and a user referral program, with more details to be dropped on USD.AI’s X account (@usdai_official) in the near future. 

As more GPUs become more tokenized, USD.AI will be able to support a wider range of real-world assets. 

Disclosure. Offchain Labs possesses a financial interest in USD.AI, which may include equity, debt, or other economic rights.