Launch HN: Stoa Markets (YC S26) – A Marketplace for GPUs and AI Servers

The GPU market is fragmented: supply is scattered across OEM allocation, cloud capacity, brokers, operators, and secondary sellers, while price depends on SKU, delivery timing, region, quantity, condition, financing, and urgency. Buyers and sellers currently rely on private quotes, stale lists, and partial broker color, making clearing levels opaque.

Stoa provides one venue for GPU supply, pricing, and execution. Sellers describe hardware in plain language or attach a quote PDF, and AI drafts an RFQ that the seller reviews and sends. Verified dealers respond with firm quotes; accepting one creates a binding trade with grade, condition, and verification expectations recorded. Settlement follows a recorded timeline—confirmed, payment, shipped, delivered, inspected, settled—with evidence required at each step and payment held until delivery confirms.

The marketplace targets a wide range of participants: GPU brokers and dealers, data center operators, AI labs and enterprises, cloud and neoclouds, OEMs/VARs/SIs, resellers and liquidators, lenders and lessors, and funds/capital partners. Stoa emphasizes trust features like verified counterparties, firm quotes, clearing-level visibility, and clean records from RFQ to delivery, contrasting with off-market trading that involves unverified parties, non-binding indications, and deal-scattered DMs and spreadsheets.