QumulusAI Secures $500M Blockchain-Backed Facility to Scale AI Compute Infrastructure

QumulusAI, a company building GPU-powered cloud infrastructure for artificial intelligence, has locked in a $500 million credit facility to fund its growing fleet of graphics processing units (GPUs).

The financing was arranged by Permian Labs and will be distributed via USD.AI, a blockchain-based credit protocol that connects crypto liquidity to real-world infrastructure, according to an announcement shared with CoinDesk.

The non-recourse facility will allow QumulusAI to borrow stablecoins against up to 70% of its approved GPU deployments, giving the company faster access to capital than traditional credit routes like bank loans or venture debt, the company said.

GPUs are the backbone of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as they can handle thousands of tasks at once and are critical for training and running large AI models. As demand for AI systems grows, so does the race to secure access to the chips that power them.

QumulusAI's funding comes as demand for computing power soars, but capital for smaller operators remains tight. Much of the industry’s GPU supply is still cornered by tech giants such as Google, Meta and OpenAI in the race for the most advanced AI model.

Permian Labs, which developed the USD.AI framework, tokenizes GPUs into warehouse receipt tokens, GWRTs, which can be used as collateral on-chain.

"By leveraging Permian Labs' tokenization framework, we can scale faster and more flexibly – meeting the surge in AI compute demand without the constraints of legacy financing,” said QumulusAI CEO Mike Maniscalco.

Bullish, whose parent company Bullish Global is also the owner of CoinDesk, last month invested $4 million into USD.AI.