USD.AI, an on-chain lending and stablecoin protocol, has approved a $500 million debt facility for Australian AI infrastructure provider Sharon AI. The loan is designed to finance the expansion of Sharon AI's GPU deployments, with the company planning to draw $65 million in initial funding this quarter.
The deal underscores a growing trend of using tokenized real-world assets to bridge funding gaps in capital-intensive sectors. USD.AI's model involves lending against verified, tokenized GPU assets, which serve as collateral. This approach "isolates risk at the infrastructure level" by linking loan exposure directly to physical hardware rather than corporate credit.
Conor Moore, co-founder of Permian Labs, the firm behind USD.AI, stated, "Sharon AI is precisely the type of partner USD.AI was built for – well capitalized with operational expertise and public market discipline, but unwilling to let growth be constrained by slower-moving, legacy financial rails."
According to a press release, USD.AI has now approved more than $1.2 billion in facilities for AI infrastructure operators, including other firms like QumulusAI and Quantum Solutions. The protocol utilizes a dual-token system centered on its USDai stablecoin and a yield-bearing counterpart, sUSDai.
Sharon AI co-founder James Manning expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, noting the facility will help accelerate compute infrastructure for hyperscale, research, enterprise, and government customers across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
