Performances
RD Popularity Index
RD Growth Index
Comparison
Fundraising
Sub Organizations
Follow Updates
Follow Lists
People
About Permian Labs
Permian Labs is the development team behind USD.AI, an on-chain credit protocol focused on GPU-backed lending. Its core business is to channel crypto liquidity into AI infrastructure financing: AI infrastructure companies pledge their GPU hardware as collateral, receive stablecoin loans, and the loans are tokenized as sUSDai for secondary market trading. The team focuses on the middle-market segment of compute financing (loans between $50 million and $250 million), which is underserved by traditional banks. Its competitive edge lies in deep technical understanding of the full compute stack—GPUs, data centers, cloud services, customer leases, deployment cycles, and residual value protection—combined with structured protections such as bankruptcy-remote SPVs, first-priority security interests, and value insurance from investment-grade underwriters, achieving credit quality close to investment-grade transactions while yielding 400-600 basis points more. The market pain point is a structural mismatch: traditional banking institutions lack the speed and technical expertise to underwrite compute infrastructure loans, while the demand for GPU financing has surged with the AI boom. In the past six months (March to September 2026), Permian Labs published a market analysis in July projecting the middle-market compute credit segment to reach $2 trillion in spending by 2030, and in August, Bullish extended a $100 million credit facility to USD.AI, with plans to list sUSDai trading pairs on its exchange. The protocol has over $225 million in locked crypto assets. Negative developments within two years include: GPU price volatility remains a key risk—new NVIDIA chip generations can rapidly depreciate older hardware, potentially increasing default rates if valuation models lag; the legal status of tokenized credit in the US remains unclear, with potential SEC scrutiny of sUSDai as an unregistered security; and secondary market liquidity for sUSDai is unproven, which could undermine the product's attractiveness if investors cannot exit positions.
Founded in 2021, Permian Labs builds on-chain credit infrastructure connecting digital capital with AI compute. It has raised ~$38M from Framework Ventures, Dragonfly, DCG, and others, facilitated $358M in loans, and manages ~$60M in GPU assets.
In August 2025, its core protocol USD.AI completed a $13M Series A led by Framework Ventures with Dragonfly, Arbitrum, etc., reaching $50M in deposits during testing—a milestone in merging stablecoin lending with AI infrastructure.
In October 2025, Permian Labs structured a $500M non-recourse credit facility for QumulusAI through USD.AI, collateralized by tokenized GPUs—the largest on-chain credit facility for real-world compute, validating a long-term path for GPU asset securitization. Coinbase Ventures also invested.
In the past six months, Permian Labs advanced the rollout of USD.AI, its GPU-backed on-chain credit protocol. The protocol adopts a 'Debt Perpetual' model, pricing new GPU loans in real time into a single debt pool, with collateral limited to eight market-validated GPU types such as NVIDIA H200/B300/GB200. It also introduced a stablecoin backed by PYUSD and a DRSA (Debt Repayment Reserve Account) mechanism to lower borrowing costs. As of August 2026, protocol TVL exceeded $225 million.
On August 28, 2026, Bullish announced a $100 million debt facility for USD.AI, dedicated to GPU-backed lending, and plans to list sUSDai and multiple trading pairs, creating a secondary market for compute credit. Permian Labs CEO David Choi noted that compute is becoming a credit market in its own right, and this facility will fund more AI infrastructure builds.
Looking ahead, the team emphasizes replacing corporate credit with asset-backed credit, expanding GPU collateral categories and tokenized credit infrastructure, ultimately positioning USD.AI as the settlement and payment layer for global AI compute contracts, while building the next-generation compute-backed stablecoin model.
Co-founders:
David Choi: Co-founder & CEO. Graduated from USC (Finance & Art History). Previously an investment banking analyst at Deutsche Bank, analyst at ArtAssure, and early crypto investor via Taureon. Founded Permian Labs in 2021, leading USD.AI, a credit protocol that provides loans to AI companies using GPUs as collateral. The company has raised $38M and facilitated over $358M in loans.
Conor Moore: Co-founder, involved in strategy and industry events such as Cantor Fitzgerald’s Crypto, AI & Energy Infrastructure Conference.
Ivan Sergeev: Co-founder.
Core executives:
Andrew Kim: Head of Product.
Gregory Teo: Protocol Lead Engineer; previously Senior Software Engineer at Nansen.