Venture Capital Firms Polychain and Lightspeed Collectively Fund $7M for seed stage of Web3 Artificial Intelligence Startup, Hyperbolic

Hyperbolic, a groundbreaking decentralized AI firm, has announced the successful completion of a $7 million seed round, co-led by Polychain Capital and Lightspeed Faction. The funding round also attracted participation from a host of notable investors, including Chapter One, LongHash, Bankless Ventures, Republic Digital, Nomad Capital, CoinSummer Labs, and Third Earth Capital.

The San Francisco-based company is set to revolutionize the AI landscape by creating a blockchain-secured, GPU-based computing model. This innovative approach aims to lower costs and empower contributors by enabling AI computations to be done more efficiently and autonomously.

Decentralized GPU-Powered Computing Infrastructure

At the heart of Hyperbolic's strategy is a decentralized network that provides access to powerful GPUs, such as NVIDIA H100, which are essential for AI computation. By pooling these resources, Hyperbolic aims to eliminate the costly and centralized bottleneck typical of AI compute.

Blockchain Security and Payment Automation

Hyperbolic integrates blockchain protocols and standards like HTTP 402 to enable AI agents to autonomously pay for computing and data services in stablecoins, without human intervention. This automation removes intermediaries, reducing transaction overhead and empowering contributors to monetize their resources directly.

Efficient AI Model Execution

Hyperbolic's technical innovation, such as the LLoCO technique developed in collaboration with UC Berkeley, reduces compute time and token consumption, lowering operational costs fundamentally. For instance, LLoCO processes extremely large AI contexts using 30 times fewer tokens and achieves 7.62 times faster inference on H100 GPUs.

Empowering Contributors

By decentralizing AI compute and payments on blockchain, contributors receive transparent, automated compensation. AI agents powered by Hyperbolic technology can autonomously procure computational resources as needed, enabling scalable AI development without centralized cost burdens or control.

A Promise of a More Cost-Effective AI Ecosystem

Hyperbolic's blockchain-secured, GPU-based decentralized model promises a more cost-effective, scalable, and contributor-empowering AI infrastructure ecosystem. The network taps the aggregated compute power of millions of idle GPUs from personal computers and data centers, making AI services cheaper.

In a statement, Hyperbolic co-founder and CEO Jasper Zhang said, "Our goal is to build an open AI ecosystem and economy that everyone can contribute to and benefit from." Zhang envisions a future where distributed compute makes services like inference cheaper, enabling researchers and developers globally to experiment at larger scales.

Hyperbolic's network is designed to be secured, ensuring the authenticity and empowerment of all contributors. The company's approach addresses the challenge of high costs due to GPU shortage and distribution bottlenecks, providing an alternative to the current centralized providers of GPU power.

As the AI industry continues to grow, Hyperbolic's decentralized model could potentially democratize AI computing, making it more accessible and affordable for all. With the successful seed round and the backing of prominent investors, Hyperbolic is well-positioned to lead this revolution in the AI landscape.

[1] Hyperbolic Labs. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://hyperbolic.ai/

[2] Polygon. (2021, November 17). Balaji Srinivasan, Illia Polosukhin, and Sandeep Nailwal join as angel investors in Hyperbolic, a decentralized AI firm. Retrieved from https://medium.com/polygon-official/balaji-srinivasan-illia-polosukhin-and-sandeep-nailwal-join-as-angel-investors-in-hyperbolic-a-152422e0d689

[3] Forbes. (2021, November 17). Hyperbolic, a Decentralized AI Firm, Raises $7 Million In Seed Funding. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2021/11/17/hyperbolic-a-decentralized-ai-firm-raises-7-million-in-seed-funding/?sh=5f1a56696175

[4] CoinDesk. (2021, November 17). Hyperbolic, a Decentralized AI Firm, Raises $7 Million in Seed Funding. Retrieved from https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/17/hyperbolic-a-decentralized-ai-firm-raises-7-million-in-seed-funding/

[5] TechCrunch. (2021, November 17). Hyperbolic, a Decentralized AI Firm, Raises $7 Million in Seed Funding. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/17/hyperbolic-a-decentralized-ai-firm-raises-7-million-in-seed-funding/

Venture Capital Firms Polychain and Lightspeed Collectively Fund $7M for seed stage of Web3 Artificial Intelligence Startup, Hyperbolic