io.net Appoints New Leadership to Drive Decentralized AI Infrastructure

io.net, a leading decentralized compute platform, has announced significant leadership changes aimed at driving its growth and mission. Tory Green, a co-founder of io.net, has been appointed as the Chairperson of the io.net Foundation, formerly known as the IOG Foundation. In this new role, Green will lead the Foundation’s efforts to promote open, permissionless infrastructure for AI, focusing on adoption, advocacy, and ecosystem growth.

Simultaneously, Gaurav Sharma, who previously served as the company’s CTO, has been appointed as the CEO of io.net. Sharma will continue to lead the company’s rapid growth and product innovation, scaling its decentralized cloud platform for the AI era. His extensive experience in distributed systems, high-performance computing, and AI infrastructure will be instrumental in this new phase of growth.

The growing demand for AI compute has led to a centralization of cloud infrastructure, controlled by a few dominant players. This poses risks to innovation, access, and transparency. The io.net Foundation was established to address this challenge by advocating for decentralized infrastructure, launching grants programs, conducting research, and engaging with policymakers and industry leaders. The Foundation’s core mandate includes ensuring that the decentralized alternative has the momentum and resources needed to thrive.

As Chairperson, Tory Green will spearhead the Foundation’s advocacy and industry engagement efforts. With a background in venture capital and early-stage leadership, Green brings a deep understanding of what is required to catalyze ecosystem growth. He will also serve as an advisor and champion for grant recipients, helping founders and researchers navigate the road to impact. Green emphasized the urgency of decentralization in AI, stating that the Foundation will push for open, equitable infrastructure that benefits everyone.

Gaurav Sharma’s appointment as CEO comes with a wealth of experience. Prior to io.net, Sharma held senior engineering leadership roles at Binance, Agoda, and Amazon, where he helped build and scale global platforms. His technical expertise has been pivotal in driving io.net’s architecture, network scaling, and core product roadmap. Sharma expressed pride in taking on the CEO role, highlighting the company’s mission to build the decentralized infrastructure layer for AI, which he believes the world desperately needs.

The partnership between io.net and the io.net Foundation is crucial as the infrastructure behind AI continues to evolve. While io.net focuses on building and scaling the infrastructure layer, the Foundation ensures that decentralization remains at the core of the global AI conversation. Tory Green and Gaurav Sharma will host a joint AMA on io.net’s X profile on 29 April to discuss these developments and the future of the company.

io.net is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that deploys and manages on-demand, decentralized GPU clusters from geo-distributed sources. Its network consists of thousands of GPUs specifically architected for low-latency, compute-intensive use cases like AI/ML ops and cloud gaming. The platform aims to democratize access to GPU compute capacity while reducing costs, expediting lead times, and expanding options for engineers and businesses.