Thunder Compute has created virtual GPU-over-TCP technology (think PCI-express over a network). This technology creates a new cloud instance with virtual, on-demand GPUs. 

What this means for developers is one cloud instance now accommodates any development workflow. A developer can build and debug in a CPU-only dev machine, then scale to a massive cluster with one command. This flexibility saves time spent configuring instances and cost of paying for idle compute during development.

In the background, our technology dramatically cuts CapEx for cloud providers. It does this by:

1) Placing multiple workloads on a single GPU with dynamic memory sharing, similar to vCPUs on AWS, improving utilization

2) Allowing CPU-only instances to share pooled GPU resources rather than dedicated cards that can't be accessed by other machines, further improving utilization

GPU virtualization also saves OpEx by reducing IT and procurement processes required to get developers access to GPUs.

Notably, this appears to be the most efficient technology for serverless GPU computing, achieving instantaneous cold starts by decoupling the GPU environment from the physical GPU.
Cloud Computing Technology to virtualize GPUs over TCP.
Title: Thunder Compute: Software to virtualize GPUs over TCP. | Y Combinator

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### Software to virtualize GPUs over TCP.

Thunder Compute creates software to virtualize GPUs over a network. With a single command we trick your computer into thinking it’s directly attached to any number of cloud GPUs, saving developer hours of setup while allowing us to serve 5x more users with the same hardware. Developers save time spent configuring instances and cost of paying for idle compute during development. In the background, our technology dramatically cuts CapEx of GPUs in any data center or cloud. It does this by: 1) Placing multiple workloads on a single GPU 2) Allowing CPU-only instances to share pooled GPU resources GPU virtualization also saves OpEx by reducing IT and procurement processes required to get developers access to GPUs.



Thunder Compute

Founded:2024

Team Size:2

Location:Atlanta, GA

### Active Founders

### Carl Peterson, Founder

CEO of Thunder Compute, formerly Management Consultant at Bain



### Brian Model, Founder

CTO of Thunder Compute, formerly Quantitative Developer at Citadel Securities



### Company Launches

[### Thunder Compute: Access cheap on-demand GPUs with our virtual GPU-over-TCP technology](



With [Thunder Compute]( run your current workload on cloud GPUs with one line of code. You can develop without paying for a GPU and then instantly connect your environment to as many GPUs as you need to move to production.

### **Watch it in action**

[

Hi everyone, we’re Carl and Brian, aka the team behind [Thunder Compute.](



Before Thunder Compute, [Carl]( was a Management Consultant at Bain & Company, and [Brian]( was a Quantitative Developer at Citadel Securities. Carl and Brian met at Georgia Tech and have been close friends for over 6 years.

### **Problem**

Developers spend hours configuring cloud platforms to meet the ever-changing needs of their projects. Today’s cloud platforms trade-off between:

*   Scalability
*   Cost
*   Simplicity

### **Solution**

Thunder Compute is a flexible cloud environment that adapts to the needs of any project with a single command, for example:

**_Using your local filesystem?_**

```
$ tnr start --sync
```

**_Scaling to 50 A100 GPUs?_**

```
$ tnr device A100 -n 50
```

**_Running a Jupyter Notebook?_**

```
$ notebook
```

**_Developing without a GPU?_**

```
$ tnr device cpu
```

All of this is available at industry-leading prices and can be set up in minutes - just **pip install tnr.**

### **Our innovation**

Think VMware for GPUs: Thunder Compute tricks your computer into thinking it’s attached to a GPU, which actually sits across a network. This means that CPU-only machines can behave exactly as if they have dedicated GPUs, while the physical GPUs are actually shared among several machines.

### **Our offer**

To help us test our systems at scale, we are giving **free open beta access to NVIDIA T4 instances.** Try Thunder Compute today at [**thundercompute.com**]( all we ask in return is that you please report any bugs 🙂

If you have questions, need technical support, or want to rant about the current state of GPUs, join our discord at [** or contact us at [**founders@thundercompute.com.**](

#### YC Sign Photo



### Hear from the founders

#### How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)

Carl Peterson and Brian Model met as freshmen at Georgia Tech and became close friends. The idea for Thunder Compute sparked from Brian's experience in his Systems for AI lab, where researchers made GPU reservations weeks in advance via Google Sheets, severely hindering research progress. This inefficiency inspired us to explore ways to improve GPU utilization and the developer experience of using GPUs. \\Our thesis was (and still is) that virtualization over a network is the optimal way to manage GPUs within a cloud platform and founded Thunder Compute to bring our technology to market.

### YC S24 Application Video
