Aether aims to become a for-profit GPU-co-founder of Airbnb.

Atir aims to be Airbnb's replacement graphics processing units (GPUs), Atir co-founder and CEO Dan Wang told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.

“[Aethir] It's a little like Airbnb where there are a few unused vacation rentals, and there's obviously a demand for some unused vacation rentals. […] So, at a basic level, we serve as a sort of Airbnb for GPU computing.

Backed by Nvidia, Aethir is building a decentralized, enterprise-grade GPU cloud infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) and gaming applications.

“Overall GPU utilization is very low,” Wang added, adding that Aether's intelligent routing feature aims to reinforce this by matching computing demand with actual GPU power.

High GPU usage can lead to advanced AI use cases due to the reduced cost of computing power, Aethir's Wang explained. he said:

“What we see happening is a virtuous circle. The more we can get out of all these GPU computers, the higher the utilization and the lower their service charge as they return the capital invested.

Ether is preparing to offer its first node from March 14th, and the public node sale will take place on March 20th.

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While there is a large global GPU shortage, a significant part of this issue is due to underutilization of older GPU models, Aethir's Wang explained. he said:

“There are a lot of old GPUs out there that aren't being used very much. […] But they haven't found a consistent use case and demand for it to be fully utilized.

Chipmaker Nvidia has struggled to keep up with demand for GPUs that are already popular with gaming customers and cryptocurrency miners. Nvidia first started GPU supply issues in 2017 as that year's bull run attracted more people to crypto mining. After cooling off a bit in the following years, the GPU shortage resurfaced in 2020 and shows no sign of slowing down.

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