USD.AI

USD.AI is a DeFi protocol that provides AI infrastructure financing through GPU-collateralized loans. The protocol offers two synthetic dollar instruments: USDai, a fully-backed stablecoin for liquidity and payments, and sUSDai, a yield-bearing token that earns from GPU loan interest and Treasury bill yields. It enables capital providers to earn yield from real-world AI hardware assets while offering builders non-dilutive financing for compute infrastructure.

Yield comes from two main sources:

1. Interest from loans backed by GPUs (graphics processing units). AI companies borrow money using their GPU hardware as collateral. They pay interest on these loans.
2. Interest from US Treasury bills. When the protocol's money is not being lent out, it earns a safe return from government bonds.

This combined yield automatically increases the value of the sUSDai token compared to the regular USDai token.

To manage risk, the protocol uses "first-loss" curators. These are specialists who find and approve the GPU loans. If a loan fails, these curators absorb the initial losses, protecting sUSDai holders from the first wave of risk.

The GPU collateral is held in separate legal entities (called SPVs). These are "bankruptcy-remote," meaning they are protected if the protocol itself has problems. A specific legal framework (CALIBER) and US commercial law (UCC Section 7) are used to make digital ownership rights over this collateral strong and enforceable.

The loans are designed conservatively. The value of the GPUs is assumed to drop quickly (over 3 years, faster than the industry's 5-7 years). This means a loan starts at 70% of the GPU's value and that percentage drops to around 40% within a year, reducing risk over time.

Redeeming tokens works through a queue system. When you want to exchange your tokens, you enter a 30-day cycle. You can pay to move up in the queue, or you can wait and earn a share of the fees generated by others bidding for priority.

The protocol does not rely on external price feeds (oracles). Instead, it uses pre-set repayment schedules, independent appraisals of GPU value, and clear step-by-step processes for handling loan defaults.

USD.AI (developed by Permian Labs) has raised funding from several investors. In August 2025, the protocol completed a $13.4 million Series A round led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Dragonfly, Arbitrum, Big Brain Holdings, CMT Digital, Hermeneutic Investments, FWL Capital, and Flowdesk. In November 2025, Coinbase Ventures made an investment in Permian Labs to scale on-chain GPU infrastructure financing. In September 2025, Bullish invested $4 million in USD.AI, marking its first investment since its IPO. YZi Labs also invested in USD.AI in August 2025 to back the yield-bearing stablecoin for scaling AI infrastructure. The protocol lists DCG (Digital Currency Group) among its trusted institutional backers, though no specific investment details are disclosed in the reviewed official announcements.