Lucía Peña
OceanPal Inc. (NASDAQ) has completed a $120 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) to fund the creation of SovereignAI Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary focused on digital asset and AI infrastructure in partnership with the NEAR Foundation.
The transaction attracted several crypto-native investors, including Kraken, Proximity, Fabric Ventures, and G20 Group, alongside the NEAR Foundation, according to a statement provided to PRIME.
The capital will support a blockchain-native digital asset treasury strategy built around the NEAR Protocol, and the development of a confidential AI cloud platform leveraging NEAR and Nvidia technologies. The NEAR Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain designed for scalable, AI-ready decentralized applications.
SovereignAI: Bridging AI and Digital Asset Ownership
Through SovereignAI, OceanPal plans to establish itself as a public investment vehicle with exposure to the NEAR token and the AI infrastructure supporting autonomous agent commerce. The subsidiary aims to acquire at least 10% of NEAR’s total token supply over time.
The advisory board will be led by NEAR Foundation co-founder and CEO Illia Polosukhin, joined by Richard Muirhead (Fabric Ventures), Lukasz Kaiser (OpenAI), Philippe Sachs (Nscale), Andy Brown (Sandhill East), and Jackie Kennedy (Quicknode). Polosukhin stated:
“We are very pleased to welcome SovereignAI to the NEAR ecosystem. We aim to achieve true universal AI sovereignty by enabling private, user-owned AI and autonomous agent commerce. The NEAR Protocol’s AI-centric technology stack is central to this vision.”
The move allows OceanPal to diversify beyond its core shipping operations, maintaining dry bulk and tanker services while expanding into blockchain and AI technologies.
Building NEAR-Powered AI Infrastructure
Co-CEO Sal Ternullo described NEAR as offering “the greatest asymmetric upside across mature digital asset projects.” The partnership with NEAR Foundation seeks to advance universal AI sovereignty, using NEAR’s integrated AI stack to deliver decentralized, privacy-focused, and regulatory-compliant AI solutions for sectors including finance, healthcare, and media.
Ternullo brings extensive experience in early-stage investing, asset management, and emerging technologies, having previously worked at State Street, KPMG, and A100x.
SovereignAI’s strategy extends beyond passive digital asset accumulation, using yield from its balance sheet to fund AI infrastructure projects. COO David Schwed emphasized:
“We are positioned at the convergence of two transformative forces — AI and digital ownership. NEAR Protocol provides the trust, security, and economic alignment needed to unlock AI sovereignty and the next generation of autonomous agent commerce.”
