General Compute, an AI inference cloud startup, has secured a $400 million loan from tech investment firm Upper90, in what may be the first financing deal to use inference-specific chips as collateral. The company, founded by CEO Finn Puklowski and CTO Jason Goodison, raised a $15 million seed round in May to build an inference-focused cloud using chips from SambaNova. Its SN50 chips are designed specifically for inference, are more power-efficient than traditional GPUs, and do not require water cooling, allowing faster deployment across data centers. General Compute says the chips deliver inference speeds up to 16 times faster than GPU-based clouds.
Upper90 co-founder and CEO Billy Libby said the firm previously pioneered chip-backed financing in 2021 through a loan to data center startup Crusoe, a model that has since become widely adopted, including by CoreWeave. Libby said Upper90 is now applying that approach to inference infrastructure as demand grows for cost-efficient access to open-source AI models rather than the most expensive frontier systems.
The deal reflects broader industry momentum toward inference-focused infrastructure, as companies like OpenRouter and Fireworks raise large rounds and newer models increasingly compete with top offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI. Puklowski said the financing signals growing capital interest in chip alternatives beyond Nvidia, as more providers seek cost-efficient inference options outside Nvidia’s dominant ecosystem.
Featured image: Credit: General Compute
