San Francisco, December 10, 2024 - We are thrilled to announce the close of a $12M strategic funding round led by Variant and Polychain Capital. This latest raise brings our total funding to $20M, marking a significant step forward in our mission to empower and protect the future of AI innovation.
“At Hyperbolic, we are building an AI Rainforest, where builders find the essential resources to innovate, collaborate, and thrive. Like a natural rainforest, our ecosystem is interconnected, vibrant, and regenerative, empowering creators to explore without limits.”
Dr. Jasper Zhang, Ph.D. • Hyperbolic Co-founder and CEO
Our story begins with the challenges faced by others: a Berkeley professor unable to find compute for privacy-focused AI research, a startup abandoning its AI model due to high machine rental costs, and a developer forced to limit users on an OpenAI-based app because of excessive API fees. Seeing these obstacles, we realized a common problem—accessible compute. While billions of personal computers sit idle and companies leave data center resources untouched, compute power remains inaccessible. Inspired by this “eureka moment,” we built Hyperbolic to make high-performance AI accessible and affordable.
We tackle inaccessible compute by coordinating idle resources, offering optimized open-source models, and unifying fragmented AI workflows into one efficient platform, enabling developers to access compute and AI services at a fraction of the cost.
Looking Ahead
With this strategic funding, we aim to expand our engineering, go-to-market, and strategic teams. Additionally, we plan to launch our own blockchain in 2025, bringing us closer to our vision of a collectively governed future for AI.
Bridging Web2 and Web3
Built on a strong Web2 foundation, we are trusted by major AI players like Quora, Hugging Face, OpenRouter, Black Forest Labs, Nous Research, LMSYS, and leading universities such as Cornell, UC Berkeley, NYU, and Stanford—giving us a significant edge over crypto-first competitors. Now, as we expand into Web3, we bridge these two worlds because we believe the future of AI is about collaboration.
Unlike many Web3 AI projects that falter, we deliver with our GPU Marketplace, Inference Services, and Proof of Sampling (PoSP)—the gold-standard verification protocol. By maximizing GPU performance, offering higher precision models, and providing secure, affordable solutions, we are setting a new standard for reliable, high-performance AI in Web3.
Our GPU Marketplace gives AI developers on-demand, affordable GPU access. Powered by Hyper-dOS, our decentralized operating system, the marketplace enables suppliers to monetize idle GPUs while offering renters up to 75% cost savings and access within a minute. With flexible, on-demand rentals, we empower developers to overcome traditional compute barriers.
Through aggregated compute and our proprietary Proof of Sampling (PoSP) protocol, we deliver a verifiable Inference Service at a fraction of the cost. Serving 40,000 Web2 developers, we process over 1 billion tokens daily, hosting cutting-edge open-source models and adding new ones based on community demand. By running models at BF16 precision for quality (unlike competitors stuck at FP8) and providing early access to new models, we empower developers with cost-effective, high-quality inference while safeguarding user data and intellectual property.
Join Us
Developers and researchers ready to take their ideas Hyperbolic can head to app.hyperbolic.xyz and create an account to access a broad range of global GPU resources and open-source models at affordable prices.
“Hyperbolic is the first player we've encountered that truly addresses the 'cost of trust' issue in decentralized GPU networks, without sacrificing performance, quality, and user experience. With Jasper and Yuchen’s deep expertise spanning both crypto and AI, they are uniquely equipped to transform decentralized compute marketplaces for AI models.”
Jesse Walden • Managing Partner at Variant Fund
Following lead investors Variant and Polychain Capital, other notable backers in this funding round include Chapter One, Lightspeed Faction, Bankless Ventures, IOSG, Vertex, GSR, Wintermute Ventures, Blockchain Builders Fund, Alumni Ventures, and Ambush. Angel investors in this round include Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer), Devin Walsh (Uniswap Foundation), Ethan Sun (MyShell), Daniel Shorr (Modulus), Bidhan Roy (Bagel), Ying Sheng and Lianmin Zheng (LMSYS), Alex Atallah (OpenRouter), Chainyoda, Comfy Capital, Nicola Greco (Protocol Labs), Alex Atallah (OpenRouter) and Thomas Scott (formerly Worldcoin).
This follows a $7 million seed round led by Polychain Capital and Lightspeed Faction, which came after a $725,000 pre-seed round with participation from investors such as Chapter One and Samsung Next.
For more information about Hyperbolic, its GPU Marketplace, and verifiable Inference services, please visit hyperbolic.xyz.
About Hyperbolic
Hyperbolic is democratizing AI by delivering an open ecosystem of AI infrastructure, services, and models. Through aggregating a decentralized network of global GPUs and leveraging proprietary verification technology, developers and researchers have access to reliable, scalable, and affordable compute as well as the latest open source models.
Founded by award-winning Math and AI researchers from UC Berkeley and the University of Washington, Hyperbolic is committed to creating a future where AI technology is universally accessible, verified, and collectively governed.
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About Variant
Variant is an early-stage crypto venture firm that backs projects at every layer of the stack: from developer infrastructure and new financial markets, to consumer applications. For more information, visit variant.fund.
About Polychain Capital
Polychain Capital is a leading investment firm dedicated to investing in blockchain technology and decentralized finance. Since its founding in 2016, Polychain Capital has focused on backing transformative projects that leverage blockchain to disrupt traditional industries and create innovative financial systems. With a deep understanding of the crypto landscape, Polychain Capital supports visionary entrepreneurs and cutting-edge technologies, driving the growth and adoption of decentralized networks and protocols. For more information, visit www.polychain.capital.
