Polychain, Lightspeed Lead $7M Fundraise for Math Olympian’s Blockchain-Based AI Platform

Polychain Capital and Lightspeed Faction have led a $7 million seed funding round for Hyperbolic, a blockchain-based AI platform. The platform aims to make AI hardware more affordable for startups and researchers by creating a scalable system that aggregates global GPU compute and utilizes blockchain technology for security and verification. Hyperbolic’s first product will be an AI inference service, followed by plans for a “GPU marketplace” that offers cheaper access to cloud computing hardware for training AI models. The seed round included participation from various investors, including angel investors like Balaji Srinivasan and Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal. Hyperbolic co-founder Jasper Zhang envisions the platform being used for applications beyond AI accessibility, such as a GPU futures exchange or revenue sharing for AI models.