Multicoin wants to turn AI chips into collateral for crypto’s next lending boom

Multicoin Capital partner Shayon Sengupta wants AI companies to borrow stablecoins against GPUs and future computing revenue.

In an Oct. 8 research note, Sengupta proposed creating blockchain-based markets where ownership claims on computing hardware, future data center capacity, and customer payments could be traded or pledged as collateral.

The proposal comes as AI infrastructure borrowing accelerates, creating opportunities for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to provide capital to companies struggling to fund expensive computing equipment.

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence has triggered unprecedented borrowing as technology companies race to build data centers and acquire the powerful chips needed to operate AI models.

According to The Kobeissi Letter, US dollar-denominated corporate bond issuance linked to AI reached a record $419 billion in 2026 as of Oct. 21.

That represents a 90% increase from the entire 2025 total and a 437% increase from 2024.

Major technology companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle, accounted for $157 billion of the borrowing, while investment-grade and high-yield data center and computing companies raised another $103 billion.

However, smaller AI infrastructure operators face a different financing environment.

Many have secured customer contracts and ordered computing equipment but lack the balance sheets and financing relationships that let tech giants raise billions through conventional debt markets.

David Choi, co-founder of GPU financing platform USD.AI, highlighted the scale of this unmet demand.

He said the platform has received more than 700 financing requests totaling $26.5 billion since its launch, with about $8.7 billion moving through different stages of evaluation.

Most requests come from operators seeking between $10 million and $300 million to expand their computing capacity.

Choi argued that traditional financing, which often requires lenders to negotiate individual agreements, struggles to accommodate that volume of transactions.

USD.AI is trying to close the gap with standardized loans secured by GPU equipment, connecting borrowers with stablecoin capital and institutional lenders.

The company reported more than $420 million in lifetime deployed capital and $659 million in total value locked as of Oct. 2, illustrating the difference between financing demand and loans already deployed.

Meanwhile, Sengupta envisions a broader market where AI companies could raise money against assets beyond physical hardware.

Under his proposal, a data center operator could issue a transferable digital claim representing access to a GPU cluster during a future period.

That claim could be sold to another customer or pledged to secure a stablecoin loan, letting the operator finance computing capacity it has yet to deliver.

Similarly, companies could borrow against payments expected from existing customer contracts, potentially reducing their dependence on traditional lenders.

Sengupta believes blockchain networks could support these transactions by allowing lenders to verify pledged assets, monitor existing debt obligations and automate payments as computing services are delivered.

He also proposed specialized intermediaries that could connect compute buyers and sellers while managing collateral, financing and price risks across multiple operators.

Such a market could help smaller providers obtain capital against verified computing capacity rather than depending solely on long-term customer contracts.