Aethir, Beam, and MetaStreet Launch TACOM AI Compute Initiative

Aethir is conducting a partnership with Beam and MetaStreet to launch a $40 million AI compute initiative. The group calls the project TACOM and is to create a framework for GPU allocation based on crypto.

The group claimed that TACOM will also seek out business opportunities in this sector, but the method for achieving this seems very unclear.

According to an announcement from Beam and a press release exclusively shared with BeInCrypto, the DePin “GPU-as-a-Service” firm Aethir is steering the project. Aethir has been on a string of AI development partnerships recently, with cloud-focused initiatives in October and blockchain gaming research in November.

This new project, Tactical Compute (TACOM), is attempting to create a decentralized solution for the enormous GPU requirements of AI research. TACOM will prioritize AI-related business opportunities like private yield arbitrage, hardware financing, and early network bootstrapping, and actively seek beneficial trades.

“[TACOM] will help address the increasing demand for computing power in AI and blockchain. With Aethir’s decentralized GPU network at its core, this venture positions us to unlock new opportunities in compute resource monetization and… provide the infrastructure needed for the next wave of technological advancement,” Aethir CEO Daniel Wang said.

Essentially, the group plans to combine the economics of AI compute with a crypto-native ethos. It creates a new framework for distributing GPU resources through tokenization. Aethir will provide the hardware resources, and MetaStreet is developing DeFi primitives to unlock this liquidity. Beam’s primary contribution seems financial, but its token rose sharply post-announcement.

Nonetheless, the group was relatively sparse in describing explicit TACOM details. For example, Beam’s announcement showed a hypothetical business solution that could use TACOM. However, this hypothetical directly involved farming Aethir’s ATH tokens and Aethir is leading the project. It’s unclear how the initiative will “search the industry for trades.”

Still, regardless of these details, the group is leading an ambitious endeavor. AI compute needs are growing dramatically in the space, and many firms are pitching solutions to alleviate development costs. Aethir is leading TACOM as one of several AI research solutions, after all. The firm is using several distinct approaches to the same problem.