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also why hyperscalers are paying folks to host gpu clusters in their homes. its to get at tgeir IP, it has nothing to do with space, cooling, etc.

gruez 22d ago
>also why hyperscalers are paying folks to host gpu clusters in their homes Source? There's definitely shady people paying people to host proxies, but hyperscalers doing it would be surprising.
- walrus01 22d ago
  My understanding of it so far is that it is at most, 50 or 100 houses as a test... It's a startup that wants to make it wide scale but hasn't got there yet. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=span+residential+gpu+datacenter https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=span+resi...
  - gruez 22d ago
    Calling them a "hyperscaler" is a stretch. By all accounts it's some renewables startup that's trying to pivot into AI because obviously AI = $$$, and calling themselves a "hyperscaler" in the process. Calling them a "hyperscaler" makes as much sense as some guy who runs a homelab in his basement as a "datacenter". https://www.span.io/blog/span-announces-xfra-a-distributed-data-center-solution-to-close-the-speed-to-power-gap-for-ai-compute-demand https://www.span.io/blog/span-announces-xfra-a-distributed-d...
    - walrus01 21d ago
      My thoughts exactly. In the current environment you could slap "AI" on a potato and get $$$ for it.
      - ezconnect 21d ago
        They are basically rebranding the Folding@Home idea and adding modern words to market it.
mitxela 22d ago
No that makes no sense. They only need a tiny device to act as a proxy. It makes no sense to colocate the expensive GPUs
- roosterIllusi0n 22d ago
  It makes sense when someone else is paying for the power. The AI capabilities of mobile cpus is for pushing cloud based AI to your device. You pay the power bill while retaining the same lack of privacy as cloud hosted AI.
  - fluoridation 22d ago
    I'm pretty sure the company that owns the compute is the one paying for the power. Who would agree to have an ugly noisy cube in their property that they have to pay maintenance for? What would they get out of that deal?
- stingraycharles 21d ago
  Yeah, the usual approach here is to offer a free VPN service, and then piggyback traffic over the user’s internet provider. Much, much more scalable and cheaper than offering to put GPUs at a user’s home.
  - bornfreddy 21d ago
    Wow, that's genius. Basically, user gets a VPN but so does provider, in a sense.
  - mitxela 21d ago
    You can offer them a free anything, really. It's a pretty convenient way to pay, that mostly doesn't affect the user at all (unless their connection is very slow), but generates value.
    - tstenner 21d ago
      "value"
calebkaiser 21d ago
Which hyperscalers are doing that? I've heard of one startup trying this, XFRA, currently in early pilot phases. But I'd be pretty surprised to hear that AWS or Google are paying people to host GPU clusters in their home.

gruez 22d ago

>also why hyperscalers are paying folks to host gpu clusters in their homes Source? There's definitely shady people paying people to host proxies, but hyperscalers doing it would be surprising.

walrus01 22d ago
My understanding of it so far is that it is at most, 50 or 100 houses as a test... It's a startup that wants to make it wide scale but hasn't got there yet. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=span+residential+gpu+datacenter https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=span+resi...
- gruez 22d ago
  Calling them a "hyperscaler" is a stretch. By all accounts it's some renewables startup that's trying to pivot into AI because obviously AI = $$$, and calling themselves a "hyperscaler" in the process. Calling them a "hyperscaler" makes as much sense as some guy who runs a homelab in his basement as a "datacenter". https://www.span.io/blog/span-announces-xfra-a-distributed-data-center-solution-to-close-the-speed-to-power-gap-for-ai-compute-demand https://www.span.io/blog/span-announces-xfra-a-distributed-d...
  - walrus01 21d ago
    My thoughts exactly. In the current environment you could slap "AI" on a potato and get $$$ for it.
    - ezconnect 21d ago
      They are basically rebranding the Folding@Home idea and adding modern words to market it.

mitxela 22d ago

No that makes no sense. They only need a tiny device to act as a proxy. It makes no sense to colocate the expensive GPUs

roosterIllusi0n 22d ago
It makes sense when someone else is paying for the power. The AI capabilities of mobile cpus is for pushing cloud based AI to your device. You pay the power bill while retaining the same lack of privacy as cloud hosted AI.
- fluoridation 22d ago
  I'm pretty sure the company that owns the compute is the one paying for the power. Who would agree to have an ugly noisy cube in their property that they have to pay maintenance for? What would they get out of that deal?
stingraycharles 21d ago
Yeah, the usual approach here is to offer a free VPN service, and then piggyback traffic over the user’s internet provider. Much, much more scalable and cheaper than offering to put GPUs at a user’s home.
- bornfreddy 21d ago
  Wow, that's genius. Basically, user gets a VPN but so does provider, in a sense.
- mitxela 21d ago
  You can offer them a free anything, really. It's a pretty convenient way to pay, that mostly doesn't affect the user at all (unless their connection is very slow), but generates value.
  - tstenner 21d ago
    "value"

calebkaiser 21d ago

Which hyperscalers are doing that? I've heard of one startup trying this, XFRA, currently in early pilot phases. But I'd be pretty surprised to hear that AWS or Google are paying people to host GPU clusters in their home.