How it works

An RFQ is a bid. Here is everything that happens after you submit one.

Seven steps from a request to a running cluster, in the order they happen, with nothing between them that is not described here.

1. Step 01

   Submit an RFQ

   Create an account and answer the questions at the RFQ front door: which GPU, how long a term, how many GPUs, and the price you are willing to pay per GPU-hour. One question per screen, with a fork for buyers who want hardware rather than a lease and an advisory branch for buyers who are not sure yet.

   A ticker names the GPU model and the term, GB300-1Y for example. Quantity is counted in GPUs; 72 GPUs is one NVL72 rack. Before you submit, the summary shows the notional, the cost per day and the deposit your price implies.

2. Step 02

   Your request becomes a live bid at your price

   There is no quote to wait for. The exchange posts a bid on your behalf at the price you named, and shows it to you resting on the book where every seller can see it. The request itself is kept, so it survives the bid being filled or cancelled.

   If you bid above the best ask, you never pay your limit. The book displays your bid at the ask and the fill happens at the ask. Bidding high buys priority, not a worse price.

3. Step 03

   Verify funds to become fillable

   Ask the exchange to verify your funds. You submit the proof; a person checks it and an administrator records the verified amount, which is credited to your wallet on the exchange. Verification is deliberately manual.

   Until then your bid still rests on the book with an unverified badge, visible to sellers and filterable by them, and it never matches. Nothing about it fills by accident. Once the amount is recorded, the same bid becomes verified and can fill.

4. Step 04

   Lock the 20 percent deposit

   A verified bid locks 20 percent of its notional from your wallet while it rests. Cancel the bid and the whole locked amount is released. Fill at a price below your limit and the difference between the deposit on your limit and the deposit on the fill price is released back to you.

   Every one of those movements is a row in the public, hash-chained ledger, which anyone can verify from genesis to the current head.

5. Step 05

   Sellers post asks against you

   Asks come only from the house and from sellers the exchange has whitelisted after reviewing their business and their proof of capacity. Holders may also list an SLA they already own as an ask, before it is activated, which is how a position is resold without operating any hardware.

6. Step 06

   A fill issues the SLA and escrows the deposit

   When a bid and an ask cross, the exchange issues a multi-year service level agreement at the matched price, attaches the standard document bundle, and moves your locked deposit into escrow behind that SLA. The trade prints to the ledger with its price, quantity and notional.

   Until activation the SLA is a contract right held on the exchange. The terms are the standard ones on the legal pages.

7. Step 07

   Activation, with a person in the loop

   You confirm region and deployment requirements. A reviewer at the exchange checks the account, the verification and the funds, sends the document bundle for signature, and then tracks deployment against an expected date, typically eight to ten weeks for a full rack.

   When you confirm SSH access to every node, escrow is released to the provider and the term starts. If the provider defaults before delivery, the deposit comes back to you. Every transition is logged.