Aethir and partners pour $40M into decentralized infrastructure for AI and blockchain

Aethir, which provides under-used graphics processing units (GPUs) to decentralized companies, announced a $40 million initiative to launch Tactical Compute (TACOM).

Together with its partners Beam Foundation (through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Beam Investments) Sophon Foundation and Permian Labs, Aethir will set up TACOM to address the global surge in demand for scalable compute infrastructure by leveraging decentralized technology to bridge traditional compute economics with tokenized and distributed solutions.

The increasing demand for AI-powered consumer applications, adaptive gaming experiences, and decentralized systems requires unprecedented levels of computing power, with the global AI infrastructure market projected to exceed $197.39 billion by 2030. 

In today’s global market, there can be a shortage of GPUs to buy for new enterprises, but big enterprises with an excess of GPUs may want to offload them to a provider like Aethir, which can find customers that need to use those GPUs. TACOM is meant to accelerate these kinds of pairings or handoffs.

“The Web3 side of the industry has seen a plethora of new AI startups that have managed to raise capital but it has been a struggle for them to get access to high-performance compute on demand,” said Daniel Wang, CEO of Aethir, in an interview with GamesBeat. “We realized there were a lot of compute providers that wanted to onboard into the ecosystem, and there’s a lot of AI-specific deals whose primary need was compute. If you look at OpenAI’s and raise from Microsoft, most of that was in shared credits. Now, basically everything’s being raised in compute because the need is significantly more than even just the capital.”

TACOM aims to tokenize the framework of how GPU resources are accessed akin to cloud credits, but through a decentralized system. TACOM will focus on compute-denominated opportunities like hardware financing, yield arbitrage, and network bootstrapping, addressing compute demand wherever it arises. TACOM aims to meet these demands, fueled by advancements in AI and blockchain technology.

This collaboration brings together three key players to redefine the landscape of AI and decentralized technology. Singapore-based Aethir delivers the backbone with its decentralized GPU network, providing scalable infrastructure critical for powering advanced AI applications and blockchain systems. The Beam Foundation lends its expertise in fostering innovation at the crossroads of AI and decentralization, steering the development of groundbreaking solutions.

Meanwhile, MetaStreet enriches the effort with developing DeFi primitives tailored for GPU and node financing, unlocking liquidity for compute hardware and driving the expansion of decentralized networks. Strategic partners include Sophon, where Aethir will be deploying its infrastructure, highlighting TACOM’s vision of bridging compute infrastructure with consumer-facing applications in gaming and AI.

Wang said this deal reduces friction for the entry of customers into Aethir’s ecosystem. The capital will be dedicated to securing more compute resources to help Web3 and Web2 startups and AI companies too.

I noted that the Web3 business has been volatile, with ChainPlay reporting that 93% of Web3 projects have failed. I wondered if that made it hard for Aethir to find reliable customers. Wang noted that the failure rate of Web2 projects is probably similar to the failure rate of Web3 startups. ‘

“It’s a notoriously competitive industry in gaming,” he said. “It’s just a tough market. One of the things startups can underestimate is the scale and cost of compute.”

Wang noted that infrastructure costs can be unpredictable, and creating a new business to ensure the infrastructure is there — like Aethir has done — is important for many companies.

By combining resources, expertise, and networks, TACOM sets a new standard for how computing power is valued, distributed, and monetized. Aethir’s fleet of cutting-edge GPUs—including Nvidia H100s and H200s—enables innovative approaches such as farming Aethir’s native ATH token through private yield constructions and bootstrapping testnets for emerging blockchain protocols.

These strategies unlock new opportunities for GPU resource monetization and drive innovation in AI, gaming, and decentralized ecosystems.

“We’re excited to partner with Beam Foundation and MetaStreet on Tactical Compute,” said Wang. “This initiative will help address the increasing demand for computing power in AI and blockchain. With Aethir’s decentralized GPU network at its core, this venture positions us to unlock new opportunities in compute resource monetization and drive innovation in scalable AI and decentralized technologies. Tactical Compute will provide the infrastructure needed for the next wave of technological advancement.”

“At MetaStreet, we’ve created DeFi primitives for node and GPU financing, bringing utility to node owners and enabling networks to scale efficiently,” said David Choi, cofounder of Permian Labs, the developers of the MetaStreet Protocol, in a statement. “Tactical Compute builds on this foundation by addressing the growing demand for compute infrastructure. By leveraging our tech to unlock liquidity for GPU-powered nodes, we’re driving innovation at the intersection of crypto, AI, and infrastructure, empowering the next wave of scalable networks and further bolstering the AI revolution.”

Leveraging a wide-reaching network of industry expertise, TACOM is poised to expand GPU-powered infrastructure potential for AI-driven applications and decentralized systems.

Beam Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the development and adoption of the Beam ecosystem and decentralized technologies.

While many Web3 firms have failed, Wang said that Aethir has the benefit of a strong token and healthy foundation treasury. That allows Aethir to take some risk to help companies scale. Aethir can help companies de-risk their operating costs by finding a long-term, cheaper solution to compute costs.

Aethir is a partner and investor in TACOM, which was created in part by Permian to solve for compute needs through tokenized solutions and abstractions.

Wang said Aethir has good hit product market fit, with over $50 million in annual recurring revenue, and it’s growing fast. Aethir has about 200 full-time employees.

“But right now, one of the big blockers is just on the supply side,” Wang said. “How do we onboard more compute into the network? Especially given we’re a Web3 project, there’s a lot of compute infrastructure providers out there. Web2 companies would be interested in participating, but simply because of the complexity or maybe even some of the legal uncertainty around Web3 and tokens, they’re a little bit hesitant to onboard into the network.”

Potential rivals like Amazon Web Services have also aggressively pursued blockchain infrastructure business. But Wang believes that in the long term a company like AWS could offload some of its infrastructure to Aethir when times aren’t as busy for AWS.

“We’re super excited to have the support of Beam and Permium Labs. This dedicated $40 million will allow us to significantly pull forward the adoption curve and growth of our network, and this should allow us to facilitate another 3,000 or 4,000 H100s to onboard into the network, which is usually enough to support a couple 100 companies,” Wang said.