# David Choi

> David Choi is the CEO and co-founder of Permian Labs. The company developed USD.AI, a stablecoin lending protocol that provides credit to AI companies by using ...

- Canonical URL: https://iq.wiki/wiki/david-choi
- Categories: People in crypto
- Tags: DeFi, Stablecoin, AI Token, Founder
- Created: 2025-09-24T07:47:19.580Z
- Last updated: 2026-04-23T02:14:40.000Z
- Source: IQ.wiki — the world's largest blockchain and crypto encyclopedia (https://iq.wiki)

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**David Choi** is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Permian Labs, a company that develops financial protocols and operates hardware infrastructure. He is also the co-founder of [USD.AI](https://iq.wiki/wiki/usdai), a [stablecoin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/stablecoin) lending platform designed to provide credit to artificial intelligence companies using graphics processing units (GPUs) as [collateral](https://iq.wiki/wiki/collateral).  [\[3\]](#cite-id-event-co-founded-permian-labs-link)

## Education

David Choi studied at the University of Southern California, where he earned dual undergraduate degrees. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus on Finance from the Marshall School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History. He also attended Rutgers Business School, graduating in 2017; while there he participated in the Rutgers Business School Center for Real Estate and founded the Real Estate Society at Rutgers.  [\[5\]](#cite-id-G5Z1gAjGGW) [\[6\]](#cite-id-Gf0IsBaLl6hM7Gtt)

## Career

While at Rutgers, Choi was active in real estate student organizations, founding the Real Estate Society and participating in the Rutgers Business School Center for Real Estate, experiences that preceded his later career. [\[6\]](#cite-id-Gf0IsBaLl6hM7Gtt)

David Choi is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Permian Labs, established in 2021 alongside [Conor Moore](https://iq.wiki/wiki/conor-moore) and Ivan Sergeev. At the company, he oversees strategic direction and its two primary divisions: the [USD.AI](https://iq.wiki/wiki/usdai) protocol and Tactical Compute, a hardware infrastructure business. Under his leadership, [USD.AI](https://iq.wiki/wiki/usdai) was developed to provide financing to smaller and emerging AI firms through loans collateralized by GPU hardware. The protocol issues USDai, a U.S. dollar–pegged [stablecoin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/stablecoin), and sUSDai, a yield-bearing version backed by compute revenue. By 2025, Permian Labs had raised $38 million in funding, managed $60 million in hardware globally, and facilitated more than $358 million in loan volume. In August 2025, the company announced a $13 million Series A funding round led by [Framework Ventures](https://iq.wiki/wiki/framework-ventures) with participation from investors including [Dragonfly](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dragonfly) and [Arbitrum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/arbitrum).

Before founding Permian Labs, Choi was active through Taureon (since 2016), where he focused on [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) research, mempool activity, and early-stage investments in projects such as [Memeland](https://iq.wiki/wiki/memeland), [Ethena](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethena), Neutron, XAI Games, Chainflip, and [Algorand](https://iq.wiki/wiki/algorand). He was also recognized as a winner at ETHGlobal’s HackMoney 2021 hackathon.

Earlier in his career, Choi worked in investment banking at Deutsche Bank (2016–2018), contributing to transactions including Unibail-Rodamco’s $24.7 billion merger with Westfield Properties and Scientific Games’ $632 million acquisition of NYX Gaming. He also held roles at the Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund, focusing on growth equity in precision agriculture, and at ArtAssure Ltd., conducting art market research and supporting fine art finance and advisory services.  [\[3\]](#cite-id-event-co-founded-permian-labs-link) [\[4\]](#cite-id-event-announced-usd.ai-series-a-link) [\[5\]](#cite-id-G5Z1gAjGGW)