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Theta Labs has signed a multi-year agreement with Seoul Women’s University to provide its ai research lab with access to Theta EdgeCloud’s decentralized GPU computing power.
As stated in a press release shared with crypto.news, the partnership will allow the ai to Everything lab at SWU to leverage Theta EdgeCloud’s decentralized GPU network, reducing costs and increasing computational power for its ai research in the healthcare, bioinformatics, and finance sectors.
Theta EdgeCloud, built on the Theta Network (THETA), is a hybrid cloud and edge computing platform powered by DePIN. It uses over 30,000 distributed nodes to deliver scalable and cost-effective GPU computing resources for ai, media, and entertainment applications, allowing users to tap into a global network of decentralized computing power. Last year, the project insured a $1 million investment from venture capital firm DWF Labs.
According to Theta Labs, the partnership with SWU’s AIX Labs exemplifies how decentralized physical infrastructure networks solve real-world problems.
Reducing costs in ai research
With GPU costs for ai research on the rise, universities are finding traditional methods such as maintaining in-house GPU clusters or using expensive cloud services increasingly unsustainable. Theta Labs CEO Mitch Liu says Theta EdgeCloud offers a solution by reducing these costs by “50-70%” and increasing research productivity fivefold.
“The message from universities is unanimous: access to GPUs for ai research is a major financial and logistical hurdle (…) By reducing these barriers and speeding up setup times, we are empowering innovation across the ai ecosystem, benefiting everyone in the field,” Liu told crypto.news.
Professor Minseo Park, who will lead the collaboration, said Theta's decentralized GPU network would bridge the gap between “academic ambitions and practical constraints,” and that the collaboration would represent a “significant step in democratizing ai research.”
“By leveraging this shared resource, our students and faculty can focus on pushing the boundaries of ai applications without restrictions.”
Minseo Park, assistant professor in SWU’s Department of ai.
The DePIN sector is growing
The multi-year agreement with SWU builds on Theta Labs’ previous partnerships with KAIST University in Daejon, which uses Theta EdgeCloud for computer vision and natural language processing, and Yonsei University in Seoul for ai model training. This new collaboration with SWU further strengthens Theta EdgeCloud’s growing presence in academia.
Meanwhile, the DePIN sector has rapidly gained traction in the cryptocurrency space, with Messari Forecast Its market value is expected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2028. With its ability to eliminate middlemen and give more power to users, DePIN is emerging as one of the most promising technologies.
As reported by crypto.news, early-stage DePIN projects have attracted significant venture capital funding this year, raising over $246 million across 70 deals through August 2024. The growth marked a 296% increase year-over-year.
