Nasdaq-listed shipping company OceanPal Inc. has completed a $120 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) to fund the launch of SovereignAI Services LLC — a wholly owned subsidiary focused on building digital asset and AI infrastructure in collaboration with the NEAR Foundation.
Several crypto-native investors, including Kraken, Proximity, Fabric Ventures, and G20 Group participated in the transaction alongside the NEAR Foundation, according to a statement shared with The Block.
The proceeds will be used to implement a blockchain-native digital asset treasury strategy centered on the NEAR Protocol and to develop a confidential AI cloud platform powered by NEAR and Nvidia technologies. The NEAR Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain platform designed for scalable, AI-compatible decentralized applications.
Through SovereignAI, OceanPal aims to position itself as a leading public investment vehicle offering exposure to the NEAR token and the AI infrastructure underpinning autonomous agent commerce. It aims to acquire at least 10% of the token’s total supply over time.
SovereignAI’s advisory board will be chaired by NEAR Foundation co-founder and CEO Illia Polosukhin, alongside Fabric Ventures founder and NEAR Foundation council member Richard Muirhead, OpenAI researcher Lukasz Kaiser, Nscale’s Philippe Sachs, Sandhill East’s Andy Brown, and Quicknode’s Jackie Kennedy.
“We are very pleased to welcome SovereignAI to the NEAR ecosystem,” Polosukhin said. “I look forward to working with them to realize a shared vision of achieving true universal AI sovereignty by enabling private, user-owned AI and autonomous agent commerce. We believe the NEAR Protocol’s AI-centric tech stack will allow user-owned AI to meet its moment.”
The move marks a significant diversification for OceanPal, which will maintain its core dry bulk and tanker shipping operations while expanding into blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies following the transaction.
Building NEAR-powered AI infrastructure
OceanPal’s co-CEO Sal Ternullo described NEAR as offering “the greatest asymmetric upside across mature projects in the digital asset market.” The firm’s strategic partnership with the NEAR Foundation aims to advance a shared vision of “universal AI sovereignty” by leveraging NEAR Protocol’s vertically integrated AI stack to build decentralized, privacy-first, and regulatory-compliant AI solutions for industries such as finance, healthcare, and media, he said.
Ternullo brings experience in early-stage investing, asset management, and emerging technologies, having previously worked at State Street, KPMG, and A100x.
SovereignAI’s strategy plans to move beyond passive DAT accumulation by using the yield from its balance sheet to fund AI infrastructure projects. OceanPal COO David Schwed said the company is “positioned at the convergence of two massive transformations — AI and digital ownership.” NEAR Protocol’s architecture “provides the trust, security, and economic alignment necessary to realize true AI sovereignty and unlock the next generation of autonomous agent commerce,” Schwed said.
© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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