AI Company Plans to Run Clusters of 10k Nvidia H100 GPUs in International Waters | Hacker News Reader

AI Company Plans to Run Clusters of 10k Nvidia H100 GPUs in International Waters

extremetech.com

26 pointsrolph28 comments

This is an ARG, not a real thing. There's merch and some "documents" to explore[0]. Sovereign barges in international waters, alpine underground labs - quite meaty.

The author of this article got whooshed. For anyone still thinking it's a scam or something, read the first words of their X profile bio[1]:

> An Alternate Reality Corporation

[0] https://delcomplex.com/archival-media/

[1] https://twitter.com/DelComplex

I think unless there is a clear puzzle and advantage to the players it is not an alternate reality game.

It appears they are just selling clothing and seeing if they can get media coverage. How is that a game?

Hmm, it doesn't necessarily need to follow other game design rules. Sometimes the point is just to figure out the mystery.

When the mystery is deliberately and artificially constructed with such a focus on swag, personally I’ll need more convincing before exerting much effort. There are innumerable legitimate mysteries to pursue.

Great - not participating is and was always an option. But this does not mean it's not an ARG.

a few entry points:

Call some of the phone numbers

Apply for a job through the onboarding portal

Also, the "merch" is a regulatory requirement. All property owned by Del Complex that has been declared as surplus is required to be sold and dispersed by the Del Complex Property Office to government agencies, qualified non-profit entities, and the public.

Ok, I guess the crypto-grifters have moved on to AI...

https://coingeek.com/all-aboard-ms-satoshi-cryptocurrency-ut...

Was this not already understood? It's been a steady transition for all these influencers to switch from pumping ethereum to pumping AI.

They don't care about any of this shit beyond it's ability to make them rich.

It's a lot less obvious how to pitch AI that will "make you rich". With crypto, you just "buy it, it appreciates, you're rich". The only possible discussion (besides sensible investment strategy, which the pumper's targets already disregard) is about whether it will appreciate, which nobody knows, and some people will believe it.

AI, however, actually has to do something useful. You have to convince people of that for them to invest. They might ask what it does or want to see a demo...

Aside from the fact that this is an extremely obvious scam, the US, which the people supposedly behind this venture call out specifically, is not a party to UNCLOS.

e: Also from their own website they claim to have 3 offices situated in the US. This is like the logical conclusion of those sovereign citizen guys who rant to the judge about Admiralty Law and having no jurisdiction because the flag has gold fringe.

The US recognizes unclos as customary sea law despite not having ratified it

>> the US, which the people supposedly behind this venture call out specifically, is not a party to UNCLOS.

> The US recognizes unclos as customary sea law despite not having ratified it

I'm guessing here that means the US doesn't enforce the law. US Gov vessels would abide by it but private vessels can do what they please.

Correct?

it accepts all but one part of the law as customary international law when it comes to nautical disputes, which should mean it applies to all sorts of vessels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_United_N...

> I'm guessing here that means the US doesn't enforce the law.

No, it means the US (but for the one bit it disagrees with) treats the Convention as redundant with international law that exists without need of a formal treaty, and enforces it on that basis.

Basically Sealand [1], with roughly the same level of delusion, only probably warmer and less damp due to all those GPUs.

If they become a problem then there are plenty of nation states who could shut them down by messing with their comms. Or if they become a big problem then a frigate and a team of marines would be more than enough. Real nation states need somewhere that people want to live, and either a military or friends with one. Cryptopirate delusions aren't going to cut it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

Very old idea. People wanted to host trading floors on rigs or tankers in international waters in the 90s so they could avoid tax and regulation. Not sure if anybody actually did it. Possibly due to latency? Or regulation?

When people start to do something in a place that is "allegedly" outside of "the law" sooner or later some variant of "the law" will show up, with armed backup, and will remind everybody how the world works.

Nobody cares about oil rigs and you camping there except the owner.

But if you announce that you are going to do it to circumvent regulation or taxation you need to have a nation state ready to defend you (at least with words). That will cost you and makes the exercise pointless (you can simply setup shop on your protectors sovereign land).

> Each BSFCC will fulfill the criteria set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Montevideo Convention to qualify as nation states

Neither UNCLOS nor the Montevideo Convention sets “criteria... to qualify as a nation-state”.

The Montevideo Convention in Article I lists some desirable features of states as persons under international law (the sense in which “nation-state” is clearly intended here), but does not set them out as either necessary or sufficient qualifications. You can have all of them and not be a nation-state, and you can be a nation-state and lack one or more of them.

So this claim about criteria for being a nation-state and everything resting on it is complete bunk.

> Each BSFCC will fulfill the criteria set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Montevideo Convention to qualify as nation states, allowing Del Complex—and whatever third party willing to pay for its own BSFCC—to operate at sea without government intervention.

...and without government protection.

If they become a nuisance to some country with a navy, and that navy later happens to conduct live fire training exercises in the area and "accidentally" wipes them out the countries that the people on the barges came from will probably object but I doubt it is something they would go to war over or impose sanctions over.

Not even that most likely.

These kind of people tend to be very annoying in their home countries so unless there is something unrelated happening no one will come to their help or explain that.

And whatever Navy intervenes doesn't even need to waste shells but can simply send a small patrol boat and 10 soldiers to arrest them. Sovereign "micro nations" tend to quickly return to reality once they are looking at the business end of a few professionally handled handguns.

Or pirates who find out this boat filled with expensive electronics is sitting unprotected in international waters…

It's kind of comical, unless you can defend it, with nukes if needed. Unfortunately, the Nations want the whole earth and the sky for themselves. Practically speaking, if you want to run away from us+eu guns, go to russia or north korea.

The solution to this kind of problem is instead to decentralize the blame. The governments can arrest or shoot a barge at sea, but they are less legitimized to arrest hundreds of thousands of people participating in a network

When the US decides they don't like its customers and sends the navy in to shut it down, what exactly is their recourse?

They won't have any. We already have footage from similar interventions from 2026 https://twitter.com/PatrickJBlum/status/1706354581989626323

They stand on the wall and sling insults about hamsters and elderberries.

Let's float all these scarce and valuable resources on a barge in international waters and claim to be a sovereign state. Very nice way to organize donations to pirates!

H100’s are export controlled, meaning you have to a license before they can shipped.

Kept you waiting, huh?

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