Sharon AI, an Australian high-performance computing company, said Thursday it has secured up to $500 million in financing from blockchain-based lender USD.AI to scale up its GPU infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region.
The money will support the deployment of computer systems used to train and run large artificial intelligence models, including an initial $65 million rollout expected to begin this quarter, the company said.
The agreement, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk, gives Sharon AI access to capital through a non-recourse credit facility, meaning loans are backed by physical GPU hardware rather than the company’s operating assets.
USD.AI’s onchain lending system converts verified GPU implementations into tokenized collateral, allowing lenders to instantly monitor performance without the need for traditional credit checks, the release said.
The structure is designed to help AI infrastructure providers grow faster while bypassing slower financing from banks and private markets, demonstrating how tokenization has powered the private lending market, the release said.
Sidney Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, told CoinDesk earlier this week that private credit could be the game changer for tokenization, the process of displaying real-world assets on a blockchain.
The private credit market has limited liquidity and often little transparency, making it ideal for a blockchain-based solution. Powell said putting real loans on a blockchain could make the industry safer and easier to access by improving price discovery and reporting.
Powell, who will speak at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong next month, said he believes defaults in onchain credit markets will ultimately prove the power of blockchain rails. Transparency around repayments and asset quality could reduce fraud and make it easier for traditional investors to enter the market, especially as crypto-backed loans are assessed by major credit bureaus, he added.
USD.AI has now approved more than $1.2 billion in similar GPU-enabled facilities for other AI infrastructure companies, including QumulusAI and Quantum Solutions.