GAIB Secures $5 Million in Pre-Seed Funding

GAIB, a crypto-AI startup focused on tokenizing GPUs, has raised $5 million in a pre-seed funding round.

Hack VC led the round, with co-leads Faction VC and Hashed, GAIB reported on Tuesday. Other participating investors included Spartan, Animoca Brands, MH Ventures, Aethir, Near Foundation, Chris Yin of Plume Network, and Lucas Kozinski of Renzo Protocol.

GAIB was founded in June of this year, and it began raising funds the same month, closing the round in July, according to co-founder and CEO Kony Kwong. Kwong also serves as a venture partner at L2 Iterative Ventures and has previously worked as an investment analyst for Huobi Global's strategic mergers and acquisitions team.

GAIB's pre-seed funding round was structured as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) with token warrants. Kwong opted not to disclose the post-round valuation or whether any investors have taken advisory or director board seats.

What is GAIB?

GAIB is a crypto-AI platform under development that aims to tokenize GPUs, making AI computing — essential for training and running AI models — more accessible. AI computing typically relies on GPUs and other hardware, and GAIB plans to unlock the liquidity of these traditionally illiquid assets.

"The idea for GAIB originates from the growing demand for accessible, scalable AI compute resources and the need to unlock the liquidity of traditionally illiquid GPU assets," Kwong explained.

The name GAIB is inspired by the movie Dune, meaning "the unseen" or "the future." Just as spice is pivotal in Dune, GPUs are the essential assets, and compute is the new currency in the AI era. The name reflects the startup's focus on three core areas: GPU, AI, and financialization.

GAIB’s platform will enable AI cloud companies to stake their GPUs. These GPUs will be tokenized, allowing investors to purchase them in the form of fungible tokens. Investors can hold these tokenized GPU assets for yields and rewards or utilize them in various DeFi applications, including lending, borrowing, options, futures, structured products, and GPU-backed stablecoins, as stated by Kwong.

Tokenizing GPUs reduces investment barriers, allowing anyone — from individuals to institutions — to participate in the GPU economy without managing physical hardware or complex infrastructure, Kwong added.

GAIB's Launch Timeline

GAIB has completed its prototype and is set for a pilot launch later this month, with an alpha product launch planned within the next two months. The GAIB token will also launch after the product's release.

The GAIB platform will operate on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, Plume, Monad, Movement, Berachain, Optimism, Arbitrum, Mantle, Avalanche Zircuit, and Polygon, according to Kwong.

Currently, 19 people work for Singapore-based GAIB, and Kwong aims to expand the team's marketing, operations, and research and development functions.

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