Stablecoins Power AI Hardware: USD.AI Offers DeFi Loans for Nvidia GPUs

USD.AI Turns Stablecoins Into Loans for AI GPUs, Bridging DeFi and Machine Learning

While DeFi is overflowing with stablecoins earning Treasury-like yields, smaller AI developers often struggle to finance GPU-powered data centers. USD.AI, a new stablecoin protocol, aims to close that gap by converting idle crypto liquidity into loans for the hardware powering artificial intelligence.

According to a Dune Dashboard, USD.AI currently has around $345 million in circulation. The protocol backs its synthetic dollar with short-term credit tied to NVIDIA GPUs housed in data centers rented to AI developers. These GPUs generate revenue by selling compute time for AI model training and inference, with the cash flow servicing the loans. Lenders earn yield from these repayments rather than token emissions, while borrowers gain access to specialized financing beyond most retail credit limits.

USD.AI operates through three interlocking systems that bring real-world credit on-chain:

1. CALIBER – Bridges physical GPUs to on-chain NFTs. Each GPU is stored in an insured data center and documented under U.S. commercial law, then tokenized as an NFT representing a legally enforceable claim. Loans are issued against these tokenized receipts, ensuring on-chain capital is backed by real-world hardware.
2. FiLo Curator – Handles underwriting and loan management. Curators post first-loss capital, absorbing initial defaults before lenders are affected. This decentralized model aligns incentives, as curators profit only when borrowers succeed.
3. QEV (Queue Extractable Value) – Manages liquidity by queuing redemption requests. Users are repaid gradually from borrower repayments, while those seeking faster exits can pay a premium to move up the line. This approach rewards patient lenders and safeguards the loan book’s solvency.

Currently, staked sUSDai yields range from 13% to 17%, supported by GPU repayment flows rather than emissions or leveraged loops.

USD.AI’s team views the protocol as a prototype for “InfraFi”, a broader model of decentralized infrastructure finance that could eventually include renewable energy or decentralized computing projects. The protocol’s near-term success depends on whether GPU leasing economics—serving as a proxy for AI demand—remain strong enough to sustain repayments.

If these dynamics hold, USD.AI could become DeFi’s first large-scale bridge connecting on-chain capital to the real-world machinery driving artificial intelligence.