Akave, an enterprise cloud infrastructure company, has introduced Akave Cloud, an S3-compatible decentralized storage solution designed to support AI deployments by enabling data movement across AI and analytics platforms without egress fees.
Traditional cloud providers have increasingly relied on opaque pricing models and steep data transfer costs, which can complicate forecasting for enterprises as AI workloads scale. Akave aims to address this by offering transparent, predictable storage economics and integrated governance controls.
By decoupling compute from storage, Akave intends to provide organizations with greater control over data location and movement across various hyperscalers and neoclouds optimized for High-Performance Computing (HPC) and AI. Akave presents a compute-agnostic storage layer, allowing flexibility in budget management, reducing vendor lock-in, and enabling the utilization of next-generation AI infrastructure.
Stefaan Vervaet, founder and CEO of Akave, stated, “Distributed systems improve scale and resiliency by spreading workloads across multiple nodes, but decentralization reduces reliance on any single controlling party, a distinction critical for enterprises deploying AI.” He added, “The real challenge is maintaining control over where data lives, how it moves, and how it’s governed across environments. We built Akave Cloud to provide a portable, verifiable storage foundation that enables enterprises to run AI workloads with full data ownership, auditability, and long-term flexibility.”
Akave Cloud operates on its own dedicated Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain, engineered to support enterprises handling data-intensive AI and analytics workloads. The platform offers predictable cost structures, enterprise-grade performance, and integrated compliance controls to enhance operational efficiency and governance for large-scale data environments.
The platform integrates with leading cloud applications and open-source communities, including Snowflake and Apache Iceberg, to support data-intensive AI and analytics workloads that demand predictable costs, strong compliance, and high performance. Additionally, Akave Cloud offers a long-term archiving option to the Filecoin network for decentralized, verifiable storage, maintaining immutable content IDs for data objects while preserving existing data lakes, model artifacts, and analytics pipelines.
Founded in 2024 by experts in data storage, data management, and Web3, Akave has secured more than $6 million in funding. Key investors include Protocol Labs, No Limit Holdings, Blockchange, Lightshift, Blockchain Builders Fund, Big Brain Holdings, Avalanche Foundation, and the Filecoin Foundation.
Gin Chao, General Partner at No Limit Holdings, commented, “Akave’s founding team brings a rare combination of data storage, enterprise, and Web3 expertise. We are excited to support their delivery of sovereign, verifiable storage to enterprises running AI at scale.”
Akave Cloud is designed to enable sovereign AI deployments by providing a portable, verifiable storage layer. This allows organizations to manage AI workloads across different environments while maintaining data ownership, auditability, and governance. The solution addresses the challenge of control—specifically, determining data residency, access, key holders, audit processes, and data movement across compute environments without incurring compliance risks or vendor lock-in.
Akave Cloud features flat-rate pricing at $14.99/TB/month with no egress fees. It offers on-chain verifiability for tamper-proof audit trails, programmable blockchain-based access controls, and sovereign data control without vendor lock-in. Its fully S3-compatible API allows for direct integration as a replacement for existing cloud storage.
Matias Antonio, Chief Investment Officer of Avalanche Foundation, noted, “As AI workflows span multiple compute environments, portability and verifiability become foundational. The next generation of AI infrastructure will be defined by portability, transparency, and governance. Akave Cloud demonstrates how decentralized storage, built on a dedicated high-performance Avalanche L1, can enable enterprises to manage data with greater sovereignty while supporting the scale and compliance requirements of modern AI workloads.”
Akave Cloud is currently utilized by several data-intensive organizations. Intuizi processes consumer intelligence datasets for Martech and retail geospatial analytics. LaserSETI ingests and stores astronomical observation data at scale with verifiable integrity for scientific research. 375ai collects data from edge camera devices and manages expansive AI training datasets, benefiting from the platform’s flat-rate pricing and zero egress fees. Skymapper stores global telescope and all-sky camera observations on Akave Cloud, aiming for tamper-proof and provably authentic data with cryptographic provenance.
Akave Cloud is available for enterprises and developers.
