According to Decrypt, Voltage Park, an AI-focused non-profit organization supported by cryptocurrency billionaire Jed McCaleb, has announced the launch of a cloud computing cluster consisting of 24,000 GPUs. The project aims to cater to the rapidly-growing machine learning (ML) compute market, which has faced challenges such as inflexible long-term contracts and high GPU rental rates. Voltage Park CEO Eric Park emphasized the impact of the compute shortage on AI innovators.
Jed McCaleb, known for co-founding Ripple and founding Stellar, has shifted his focus to the fast-growing field of AI. His backing of Voltage Park demonstrates the tech industry's transition from blockchain to AI. Voltage Park's goal is to make ML infrastructure accessible to everyone, from large tech companies to emerging startups. They offer bare-metal access for large-scale users, short-term leases, and hourly billing.
With approximately 24,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, worth around $500 million, Voltage Park becomes a significant player in the ML market. The organization is already providing services to startups like Imbue and working on infrastructure for well-known AI companies like Character AI and Atomic AI. Voltage Park aims to be fully operational by 2024.
Kanjun Qiu, CEO of Imbue, praised Voltage Park for providing faster access to critical compute resources than other providers. The demand for advanced AI silicon, such as Nvidia's, has surged since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT last year. Businesses are now competing not only for crypto dominance but also for AI supremacy. McCaleb's funding of Voltage Park, a subsidiary of his nonprofit Navigation Fund, is a strategic move in this direction.
Although McCaleb played a crucial role in establishing Voltage Park, the nonprofit states that he is not involved in its daily operations and does not sit on the board. Voltage Park's efforts to democratize AI technology bring cutting-edge computing power to a wider audience, potentially sparking a new wave of innovation in machine learning.
