Wall Street for the Physical Buildout

Robots, GPU clusters and data centers need large up-front financing that mostly doesn't exist yet. YC wants lenders, lessors and hedging products built for the physical AI economy.

A software startup needs little capital. Robots, GPU clusters and data centers need a lot, and someone has to pay for the steel and silicon before they earn anything. Banks today underwrite a robot like a forklift, so founders are inventing their own instruments, such as a lender for robots that each earn $500k a year, or put options on GPU capacity.

The ask: lending, leasing, securitization and hedging products for physical AI. YC notes that railroads, electricity and telecom each produced large financial companies as they were built out.

Read the full request on YC →