Turning Compute Into Capital: Why Hack VC Led GAIB’s Seed Round
By Alex Botte and Herbie Fu, Partners at Hack VC
Last year, we led the seed round for GAIB, one of the first teams building the financial infrastructure for the AI compute economy. At the time, we believed that the most valuable resource of the AI era (compute) was on the verge of becoming an investable asset class. Today, with GAIB’s token launch, that thesis is coming to life.
GAIB is creating the first decentralized financial layer for compute assets. By turning GPUs into yield-generating on-chain assets, GAIB gives investors exposure to the real economics of AI while helping cloud providers and data centers scale their infrastructure. In short, GAIB bridges two of the most powerful trends in technology today: the rise of AI and the maturation of DeFi.
The Opportunity
- Compute is the new commodity
AI models are only as powerful as the compute behind them. Training and inference for modern models require thousands of GPUs that cost 10s of thousands of dollars each. The world’s demand for compute is rising faster than any other input in technology, with major tech companies projected to spend more than $300B on AI infrastructure in 2025 alone.
But unlike traditional commodities such as oil or gold, there is no liquid market for compute. GPUs sit idle in data centers, trapped capital that cannot easily be financed, leased, or traded. This inefficiency locks out investors and slows down the pace of AI innovation.
- Cloud and data centers face capital constraints
Building AI infrastructure is one of the most capital-intensive undertakings in the world. Outfitting a single facility can cost 100s of millions of dollars, and each new generation of GPUs adds more strain to balance sheets. The result is a bottleneck: demand for compute keeps rising, but access to financing has not evolved to keep up.
- Crypto needs real yield
On the other side, crypto has an abundance of liquidity but a shortage of real-world yield. Much of DeFi has relied on inflationary incentives rather than sustainable cash flows. What crypto needs are tangible, revenue-backed assets that generate steady income. And what AI needs is a way to unlock capital for its physical infrastructure. GAIB connects these two worlds.
What Is GAIB
GAIB is building the economic layer for AI infrastructure. Its protocol tokenizes GPUs and the cash flows they generate, transforming them into yield-bearing assets that can be traded, staked, and used across DeFi.
At the center of this system is AID, GAIB’s AI synthetic dollar. AID is backed by diversified financing deals with GPU operators and data centers around the world. These deals generate yield from real compute workloads, which flows back to AID holders. Staking AID (sAID) allows users to earn this yield while maintaining liquidity, creating a sustainable foundation for the crypto x AI economy.
In other words, AID is a stable asset powered by real AI activity, not token inflation.
How It Works
GAIB connects capital to compute through a mix of off-chain and on-chain mechanisms.
- GPU Financing Deals
GAIB works with cloud providers and data centers to structure financing arrangements secured by high-end GPUs such as NVIDIA H100s and H200s. These can be short-term bridge loans or longer-term revenue-sharing agreements. Yields range from about 10-20% for debt-based deals to as high as 60% for equity-style deals, depending on risk and duration.
- Tokenization of Cash Flows
The revenue streams from these deals are tokenized and brought on-chain. This creates a transparent and composable portfolio of real yield from AI compute that can be integrated across the broader DeFi ecosystem.
- AID Synthetic Dollar
The AID token is issued against this portfolio, combining stable liquidity with real economic yield. Holders can stake AID for rewards, lend it, or use it as collateral across DeFi.
- Integrations Across DeFi and DeCompute
GAIB is integrated with major decentralized compute (DeCompute) protocols like Aethir and io.net (both Hack VC portfolio companies) as well as traditional data centers. This positions GAIB as the financial backbone for the DeCompute economy.
Why We Led the Seed Round
When we first met the GAIB team, two things stood out.
First, they saw where the world was heading. Compute was becoming the scarcest and most valuable resource in technology, yet the market for it was still opaque and illiquid. The idea that GPUs could be tokenized, financed, and traded like any other productive asset was both intuitive and transformative.
Second, the team had the right mix of experience and ambition. The founders combined deep backgrounds in AI, crypto, and finance, along with a clear understanding of the global GPU supply chain. They had already forged partnerships with major compute providers and DePIN networks, giving them a head start in building real economic traction from day one.
We believed then, and still do, that GAIB is doing for compute what DeFi once did for capital markets: unlocking liquidity, transparency, and participation for everyone.
A Currency for the AI Era
Looking forward, GAIB’s vision extends beyond GPUs. As AI models, data, and agents evolve, so will the physical and financial primitives that support them. GAIB has now begun expanding into robotics assets, another class of productive hardware powering the intelligent economy. By financing and tokenizing these assets alongside compute, GAIB is broadening its foundation for real-world, yield-generating infrastructure. In time, AID could become the base currency of the AI economy, used to fund, transact, and invest across a global network of intelligent systems.
GAIB is creating a bridge between two technological revolutions. It allows anyone, anywhere, to participate in the dividends of the AI age.
We are proud to support GAIB and congratulate the team on their token launch and look forward to seeing the financial infrastructure they’ll build for the AI era.
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