In September 2024, as Bitcoin held steady at $65,635 and the broader crypto market showed renewed institutional confidence, Borderless Capital made a decisive bet on the intersection of artificial intelligence and decentralized physical infrastructure. The Miami-based investment firm launched its DePIN Fund III, a $100 million vehicle backed by some of the most influential names in Web3, signaling that the convergence of AI and decentralized compute has graduated from thesis to deployment.
The Synergy
The logic connecting AI and DePIN is straightforward but powerful. Training and running large language models requires enormous computational resources — resources that are currently concentrated in the data centers of a handful of technology giants. Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks offer an alternative: distributed networks of individual contributors who provide GPU compute, storage, bandwidth, and sensor data in exchange for token incentives.
Borderless Capital’s DePIN Fund III is backed by peaq, the Solana Foundation, Jump Crypto, IoTeX, GSR, Anfield, the Wormhole Foundation, Sonic Boom Ventures, and Movement Labs. This roster represents a who’s who of infrastructure-focused blockchain projects, and their collective backing validates the thesis that decentralized compute can compete with centralized cloud providers for AI workloads.
The fund is led by two partners with deep infrastructure expertise: Álvaro Gracia, former head of U.S. investments at Telefónica, and Sean Carey, co-founder of the Helium Network — arguably the most successful DePIN project to date, with over one million IoT antennas deployed globally in partnership with T-Mobile and Telefónica.
AI Use Cases in Web3
The AI-DePIN convergence is already producing tangible results. Render Network enables distributed GPU rendering for AI-generated art and visual content. Akash Network provides decentralized cloud computing that competes with AWS and Google Cloud for ML training workloads. GEODNET uses blockchain-powered real-time kinematics to deliver centimeter-level GPS accuracy, which is critical for autonomous vehicles and robotics powered by AI.
But the frontier extends far beyond compute. AI agents — autonomous programs that can execute complex multi-step tasks on behalf of users — are emerging as a primary consumer of decentralized infrastructure. These agents need verifiable computation, decentralized data feeds, and censorship-resistant execution environments. DePIN networks can provide all three.
The fund’s focus on Commodity DePINs is particularly relevant to AI workloads. Unlike bespoke DePINs that require specialized hardware, commodity DePINs leverage widely available devices — smartphones, laptops, and consumer-grade GPUs. This dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for contributors and creates more resilient, geographically distributed networks that are harder to censor or shut down.
Data Privacy Implications
The intersection of AI and DePIN raises critical questions about data privacy. When individual contributors provide compute resources for AI training, what happens to the data flowing through their nodes? How do we ensure that sensitive information — medical records, financial data, personal communications — is not exposed during decentralized inference?
Emerging solutions include Trusted Execution Environments, which create hardware-isolated secure enclaves for processing data. Phala Network, for example, published a benchmark study in September 2024 demonstrating that TEE-enabled NVIDIA H100 GPUs can run LLM inference with minimal performance overhead while maintaining data confidentiality. This is the kind of infrastructure that makes decentralized AI viable for enterprise use cases.
Zero-knowledge proofs offer another layer of privacy, allowing AI models to prove they executed correctly without revealing the underlying data. As these technologies mature, the privacy concerns that currently limit decentralized AI adoption will diminish.
The Innovation Frontier
Borderless Capital’s previous DePIN funds, launched in 2021, invested in over 35 projects including Helium, Render Network, GEODNET, Natix, Mawari, Silencio, DIMO, XNet, and Wingbits. The firm has made over 250 investments since 2018 and manages more than $500 million in assets across hedge fund and venture capital strategies.
The Web 2.5 DePIN model — another focus area for the fund — is particularly interesting for AI adoption. These projects combine decentralized networks with traditional payment rails, making them accessible to users who may not hold cryptocurrency. For AI companies seeking distributed compute, this means access to a broader contributor base without requiring crypto-native onboarding.
Concluding Thoughts
The launch of Borderless Capital’s $100 million DePIN Fund III in September 2024 marks a maturation point for the AI-crypto convergence. With Bitcoin above $65,000 and Ethereum at $2,659, the market capital is flowing into infrastructure that will power the next generation of AI applications. As Álvaro Gracia noted, DePIN has the potential to become the global standard for deploying physical infrastructure, coordinating human resources, and generating billions in passive income while providing accessible, lower-cost services. For the AI industry, that means compute without borders.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
DePIN Fund III backed by peaq, Solana Foundation, and Jump Crypto. the roster alone tells you where the smart money is heading
jump crypto backing DePIN after the wormhole mess is either conviction or cope. probably both
the AI compute demand thesis makes sense. training LLMs is expensive and centralized. but is $100M really enough to challenge AWS and Google Cloud?
$100M is a rounding error vs AWS capex. but the point is proving the model works, not going toe to toe with big tech on day one
AWS spends more on coffee than DePINs entire market cap. but proving distributed compute works at scale is the real milestone
ive been holding DePIN bags since 2023. nice to see Borderless finally validating the thesis with real capital instead of just tweets
2023 DePIN bags hurt. but borderless putting institutional money behind it is different than retail hopium on twitter