AI Infrastructure & Compute

Decentralized GPU Marketplaces

Platforms renting GPU infrastructure and compute networks.

Investment Overview

Decentralized GPU marketplaces connect individuals and companies with spare GPU capacity to users needing compute power for AI training, rendering, or scientific computing. Unlike token-based networks, these are transaction marketplaces where providers earn direct payment and renters access compute at 30-70% discounts vs. AWS/GCP. Leading marketplaces: Vast.ai (10,000+ GPUs), RunPod (GPU cloud), Lambda Labs (ML infrastructure). Market opportunity: $50B cloud compute market, with decentralized capturing <1% currently but growing 200%+ annually as AI demand surges.

Market Context & Trends

GPU shortage (2023-2024) from AI boom created arbitrage opportunity. Vast.ai saw 500% growth as startups couldn't access Nvidia H100s through traditional clouds. Pricing: AWS p4d.24xlarge (8x A100) costs $32/hour; Vast.ai equivalent $12-18/hour (40-60% savings). However, reliability concerns and lack of enterprise SLAs limit adoption to development/testing workloads vs. production.

How to Invest in Decentralized GPU Marketplaces

Vast.ai: Rent GPUs hourly, providers earn $0.10-$2.00/hour per GPU depending on model

RunPod: Serverless GPU pods, providers earn 70% of rental fees, renters pay $0.30-$3/hour

Salad: Distributed compute network, gamers rent idle GPUs, $0.02-$0.10/hour earnings

Coreweave (Private): GPU cloud IPO candidate, $2B valuation, institutional GPU leasing

Lambda Labs: ML cloud infrastructure, GPU clusters for AI research, no peer-to-peer model

Key Platforms & Access Points

Vast.ai: 10,000+ GPUs, peer-to-peer marketplace, wide GPU selection (3060 to H100)

RunPod: Serverless GPU pods, Kubernetes integration, developer-friendly, 5,000+ GPUs

Salad: Consumer GPU rental, 250,000+ devices, low-power tasks (rendering, transcoding)

Coreweave: Enterprise GPU cloud, Nvidia partnership, $2B valuation, IPO candidate 2024-2025

Genesis Cloud: European GPU cloud, compliance-focused, GDPR-friendly, 1,000+ GPUs

Key Investment Metrics

GPU utilization rate: Providers earn only when GPUs rented; 30-50% typical utilization

Price per GPU-hour: A100 $1-2/hour, RTX 4090 $0.50-$1.00/hour, older GPUs $0.10-$0.30/hour

Reliability score: Uptime %, network speed; affects rental rates 20-40%

Marketplace take rate: Vast.ai ~15-20%, RunPod ~30%, affects provider earnings

Workload types: AI training (60%), rendering (20%), mining (10%), scientific compute (10%)

Risk Considerations

Understanding these risks is critical before investing in decentralized gpu marketplaces.

Provider earnings volatility: Utilization 30-50% means inconsistent income; oversupply drives rates down
GPU depreciation: RTX 3090 lost 50% value (2022-2024); purchase for rental may not recover costs
Competition from hyperscalers: AWS, Azure price cuts can destroy decentralized arbitrage
Reliability concerns: Peer-to-peer GPUs have 90-95% uptime vs. 99.9% AWS; enterprises hesitant
Regulatory risk: EU AI Act, data residency laws may restrict cross-border GPU rental

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