Nonprofits Supported by Cryptocurrency Tycoon Secures $500 Million in AI Chips
In an unexpected turn of events, Jed McCaleb, known for his involvement in block chain ventures like Stellar, Ripple, Mt. Gox, and the aerospace firm Vast, has established a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity. This organization has made a substantial investment in 24,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs to establish data centers that will offer computing resources to AI projects.
These GPUs, estimated to be worth half a billion dollars and among the world's largest, are already in use by start-ups Imbue and Character for experimenting with AI models. Eric Park, the CEO of Voltage Park, a newly formed organization responsible for managing these data centers, emphasized that their goal is to provide access to startups, scale-ups, and research organizations that face obstacles due to restrictive contracts, GPU shortages, and high minimum purchase requirements.
Many companies involved in AI model training, especially generative AI models like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, heavily rely on GPU-based hardware due to their ability to handle parallel computations effectively. However, there is a severe shortage of these chips on the market, affecting major players like Microsoft and Nvidia.
Voltage Park's unique structure involves the establishment of a non-profit entity called the Navigation Fund, which McCaleb endowed. The Navigation Fund then acquired the H100 GPUs, even paying full sales and use taxes despite its non-profit status, and subsequently transferred ownership of the GPUs to the for-profit Voltage Park, a subsidiary of the Navigation Fund. This structure was strategically chosen to allow Voltage Park to efficiently manage a cluster of this size, while the Navigation Fund focuses on its charitable mission and grant-making.
It's important to note that McCaleb does not own or profit from the Navigation Fund or Voltage Park, both of which operate independently with their respective executive teams and boards of directors. There may be significant tax benefits associated with McCaleb's donation, even if the non-profit recipient re-gifted the assets to Voltage Park.
Voltage Park is just one of the Navigation Fund's long-term projects. The fund intends to support various sectors, including animal welfare, criminal justice reform, open science, climate, and AI safety, to benefit organizations, activists, advocates, and entrepreneurs. While the Navigation Fund is not yet formally registered as a non-profit, it is expected to do so in due course.
A portion of Voltage Park's profits will contribute to the Navigation Fund's philanthropic endeavors. The full cluster of Voltage Park is not yet online but is expected to become operational in several states—Texas, Virginia, and Washington—by the end of the year. This will include a significant allocation of resources for early-stage start-ups and developers, available for both short-term leases and hourly billing.
Voltage Park's mission is not limited to providing bare-metal machine learning infrastructure; it aims to broaden machine learning accessibility by lowering entry barriers and offering additional services as the AI field continues to evolve and mature.
