The accelerating field of artificial intelligence development is currently constrained by an often-overlooked yet pervasive challenge: the inconsistent and unpredictable access to the computing resources that power it. For founders, operators, and investors alike, this “compute volatility” manifests as a significant operational hurdle, defined by opaque pricing structures, complex contractual variations, and strategic plans dictated more by short-term resource availability than by long-term vision. This environment forces technology teams into a reactive posture, making inefficient decisions about one of their largest and most critical costs. In response to this industry-wide problem, Mai Trinh and Gabriel Ravacci, co-founders of Internet Backyard, are pioneering a solution that conceptualizes AI compute not merely as a utility but as a complete economic system. Their vertical FinOps platform is designed to introduce consistency and predictability, aiming to transform the very foundation upon which AI innovation is built.
Defining the Compute Economy
The Challenge of Economic Legibility
The primary obstacle impeding the seamless growth of the AI sector is not an absolute scarcity of computing power, but rather the profound lack of sophisticated financial and operational systems required to make this power accessible and “legible.” In its current state, the compute market lacks the clear, standardized economic signals necessary for efficient allocation and planning. This absence of legibility means that value, cost, and risk remain shrouded in opacity, forcing companies to manage what is often their largest and most critical expenditure in a reactive, tactical manner. Internet Backyard’s central mission is to address this systemic issue by constructing the financial rails needed for a transparent and manageable ecosystem. The goal is to create a system where compute’s economic properties are as clear and predictable as any other strategic input, allowing businesses to plan and innovate with confidence rather than being constrained by market volatility and uncertainty. This approach reframes the problem from a simple supply-and-demand issue to one of market infrastructure.
The FinOps Solution for AI Compute
Internet Backyard’s platform materializes as a “vertical FinOps layer for compute,” a specialized system engineered to instill order and predictability into a chaotic market. This is achieved through the integration of three primary functions designed to address the ecosystem’s most pressing pain points. First, it automates and streamlines the fragmented billing processes that currently exist across a multitude of data centers and cloud providers, creating a unified and understandable financial overview. Second, it establishes a centralized marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of GPU resources, which significantly improves both access and price discovery for all participants. Finally, while positioned as a long-term objective, the platform is structured to lay the groundwork for future financial instruments tied to compute, potentially enabling sophisticated long-term planning and risk management strategies. The immediate validation of this comprehensive approach was underscored by the company’s ability to raise $4.5 million at a $25 million valuation shortly after its launch, signaling strong investor confidence in its solution.
The Founders’ Dual Perspective
The Operator’s View From Uncertainty to Intention
CEO Mai Trinh’s insights were forged through direct experience with the operational realities of large-scale AI development. During her time at the robotics company Sanctuary AI, she witnessed firsthand how pivotal infrastructure decisions were made with “limited financial clarity,” leading to strategies driven more by “uncertainty rather than intention.” This perspective was further sharpened through her work building Red Thread Club, a community for Gen-Z founders. Engaging directly with entrepreneurs in AI, robotics, and software, she identified a recurring pattern of frustration. The fragmented nature of infrastructure billing and the inconsistent availability of GPU resources were not minor inconveniences; they were actively shaping product roadmaps, delaying development timelines, and even influencing critical hiring decisions. Her observations made it clear that the lack of financial and operational standardization for compute was a fundamental bottleneck that stifled innovation at its very source, forcing promising early-stage companies to prioritize resource acquisition over core product development.
The Financier’s View Making Compute a Legible Asset
CTO Gabriel Ravacci approached the problem from the perspective of market mechanics and structural incentives. His analysis focused on how pricing models, contractual agreements, and market dynamics influence behavior within complex infrastructure markets. He consistently observed that as AI teams began to scale, compute rapidly emerged as their single largest and least transparent operational cost. Ravacci concluded that the root cause was not a fundamental shortage of supply but rather a “lack of systems that made compute legible as an economic input.” This illegibility created significant friction, distorted capital allocation, and made long-term capacity planning nearly impossible for both providers and consumers. His work involved deep collaboration with data-center stakeholders to conceptualize what practical standardization would entail for the entire ecosystem, including providers, financiers, and long-term partners, aiming to build a more efficient and rational market from the ground up.
Building the System and Beyond
A Neutral Layer for a Competitive Market
A cornerstone of Internet Backyard’s strategy is its commitment to neutrality. The company is not constructing a new cloud or data center to enter the fray against established hyperscalers like AWS or regional operators. Instead, it is building a standardized, intermediary layer that operates on top of the existing infrastructure, serving as a set of common financial rails for the entire market. This approach is meticulously designed to standardize how compute is priced, provisioned, and financed without locking users into a proprietary ecosystem. The principle of neutrality was validated through Trinh’s research across diverse geographical markets, including Africa, Southeast Asia, and North America, where similar issues with billing fragmentation and poor visibility were prevalent. By creating a neutral platform, Internet Backyard aims to reduce the friction caused by opaque practices, thereby enabling new and alternative providers to participate more meaningfully in the market, which ultimately fosters greater choice and healthy competition for consumers.
A Blueprint for Future Infrastructure
The founders’ vision for Internet Backyard extended far beyond the immediate challenges of the AI compute market; they saw their work as a critical component of a larger paradigm shift in how essential infrastructure was managed globally. As data-center capacity continued its exponential expansion, the need for standardized financial and operational rails would become paramount across numerous sectors. The underlying principles of making capital-intensive assets economically legible and operationally efficient were not unique to AI. They believed the same framework could be applied to other complex domains, such as the operational management of large-scale robotics fleets, the financing of distributed alternative energy systems, and the development of emerging computing architectures. In their view, the often-overlooked infrastructure decisions made today were the primary determinants of which technologies and innovations would ultimately succeed tomorrow. Fundamentally, the platform was about building functional systems that reduced uncertainty, thereby empowering creators to focus on what they do best: innovation.
