AI has a hardware crisis: Here’s how decentralized cloud can fix it

Decentralized cloud computing platform Exabits optimizes underutilized consumer GPUs into enterprise-grade hardware, democratizing the AI compute industry and supply.

Amid the booming artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, a silent crisis emerges in the form of the scarcity of hardware, potentially putting the aspirations of countless developers and innovation on hold.

The concentration of computing power in the hands of tech giants presents risks beyond inflated market prices, such as weaknesses in AI security, a monopoly on “innovation” and potential unethical use. In response to scarcity and centralization, decentralized cloud computing platforms emerge as potential saviors. These platforms tackle the challenges of underutilized GPU resources and the inefficiency of current aggregation models, democratizing AI development.

Despite addressing the inefficiencies of centralized models, decentralized platforms face the reality that most enterprise-class GPUs are already dedicated, and only limited power is available. However, nearly 90% of consumer GPU potential remains untapped. Since consumer GPUs are primarily designed for gaming, optimizing them to meet AI computing demands is essential, as traditional aggregation methods are insufficient.

Decentralized cloud for AI computing

Exabits, a decentralized cloud computing platform, overcomes the limitations of standard decentralized platforms as the base layer of AI computing and a full-stack solution by aggregating, accelerating and stabilizing consumer-grade GPUs to near parity with enterprise-grade GPUs. This empowers a vast yet largely untapped reserve of consumer GPUs, potentially addressing the GPU shortage crisis.

Projects like io.net, Render Network, Akash, Aethir, EMC and Solana have partnered with Exabits to establish a vast, interconnected decentralized computing network.

The growing GPU compute gap presents a market potential with AI's demand outstripping supply. Source: Exabits

Moreover, Exabits has unique access to the coveted enterprise-grade H100 and A100 GPUs (and soon the new B200s) due to its decades of experience in the data center business, further democratizing AI development.

With access to over 65,000 GPUs, Exabits takes advantage of underutilized consumer GPUs and turns them into AI computing solutions. For optimal performance, the platform accelerates, connects and balances hardware with cutting edge technologies developed by its team of Ph.D. researchers.

Sustainable model for AI resources

While Exabits is not the only GPU marketplace, it is unique in its ability to expand the total supply of chips capable of meaningful AI computing and is partnering with other compute marketplaces to seed their supply as well.

Market participants around the world are incentivized to contribute their compute resources to the network in exchange for tokens. The tokens can also be utilized to pay for services within the ecosystem.

Enterprise-grade GPU clusters

The Exabits team is led by PhDs from Harvard and Princeton with experience spanning organizations such as BitMain, Ericsson, QuickNode, The White House, Plug and Play, TikTok and Meta. Their collective expertise includes over $2 billion transactions in construction, management and operation of data centers globally. The team’s extensive experience and relationships helped bootstrap Exabits’ network of enterprise-grade GPU clusters.

The platform ensures its customers have the requisite computing power to train sophisticated machine learning models efficiently at scale. It enables developers to build complex AI projects without facing traditional entry barriers, providing a cost-effective alternative to limited high-end enterprise GPUs.

Following its partnership with Nebula Block, a Web3 infrastructure platform, Exabits reports 71% cost savings and a 30% performance increase compared to traditional Amazon Web Services (AWS) platforms.

Exabits aggregates, accelerates and stabilizes consumers’ idle GPU powers to handle AI workload. Source: Exabits

As we envision the future, the necessity of forging a more inclusive AI infrastructure is undeniable. By fostering a community-driven approach and implementing scalable and efficient solutions, the technology industry can overcome current limitations. Solutions like Exabits can pave the way to a future where AI development is accessible to everyone.