W3BCLOUD raises $20.5M to rollout a network of data centers dedicated to the blockchain economy
W3BCLOUD, a global network of high-performance data centers enabling Web 3.0 and the blockchain economy, which is a joint venture between Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and ConsenSys, announced today that it has completed its initial close of $20.5M in convertible notes from Advanced Micro Devices and ConsenSys, along with several family offices in the United Arab Emirates. 
With this first round of funding, W3BCLOUD will ramp and operate its first Ethereum blockchain data centers. W3BCLOUD will expand its network of decentralized data centers across the globe as more funding is raised.
Ethereum is emerging as the programmable blockchain of choice for decentralized finance (DeFi) and United States Dollar-pegged stablecoins. The economic dislocation of 2020 coupled with the global dollar shortage sparked a significant increase in dollar-backed stablecoins transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.
“The trustless, permissionless and decentralized economy requires robust and dedicated data centers to scale. W3BCLOUD brings together the pre-eminent GPU manufacturer and the leading blockchain developer to build the compute infrastructure for the blockchain economy,” said Co-Founder and CEO Sami Issa.
Post economic recovery, individuals, enterprises, and governments will prioritize resilience and resiliency requires geopolitical decentralization, permissionless, and robust infrastructure.
Co-Founder and CIO, Wael Aburida said, "In terms of investment, we are having really interesting conversations both within the UAE and Saudi, both countries have made a stated strategy to diversify into the tech arena and as a result, there has been lots of interest from investors in the region who are in search of alpha. We are really excited by the overwhelmingly positive engagement in these markets."
"In the GCC we are assessing whether to locate our first data center for the region in Abu Dhabi or Saudi Arabia, we expect to make a decision on this in the next subsequent fundraising stage.
“Parallel and Distributed Computing focused on blockchain use cases is a fast-growing segment of the industry. I am very excited to see W3BCLOUD power up their first GPU-centric data center focused on blockchain as they work to ramp aggressively across multiple geographies throughout 2020,” says Jörg Roskowetz, Head of Blockchain Business Unit, AMD.
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An encouraging 33 startup deals took place in May 2020, which was an increase of 93% compared to April. This was largely driven by the Misk500 MENA Accelerator, which graduated its third batch of startups. Discover more details in our May 2020 Dashboard Report.