Sentient is the new crypto project that aims to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) based on the underlying open-source code. Sentient has secured a seed round funding led by Pantera Capital, Framework Ventures, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, for a total of 85 million dollars.
Sentient: 85 million dollars in seed round for the open-source crypto project that develops AI
Sentient, a new crypto project that aims to develop its open-source artificial intelligence (AI) platform, has announced that it has secured a seed round funding of 85 million dollars.
We are thrilled to announce Sentient's $85M seed round, co-led by @foundersfund with @peterthiel, alongside @PanteraCapital and @hiFramework. This marks a pivotal step in aligning AI development toward a community-built open AGI platform.
Our vision at Sentient is to ensure AI… pic.twitter.com/6KyjjPcRUd
— Sentient (@sentient_agi) July 2, 2024
“We are excited to announce the seed round of Sentient of 85 million dollars, co-led by @foundersfund with @peterthiel together with @PanteraCapital and @hiFramework. This marks a fundamental step in aligning AI development towards an open AGI platform built by the community. Our vision at Sentient is to ensure that AI brings benefits to humanity as a whole. By creating an open platform for AI development, we aim to distribute the benefits of AI equitably and align its growth with global interests. Our main contributors @sandeepnailwal, @viswanathpramod, @hstyagi, and @0xSensys bring extensive experience in blockchain technology, AI research, and ecosystem creation. Together, we are committed to securing property rights for AI development and ushering in an era of fair entrepreneurship in the field of AI. This round also saw participation from leading funds such as @etherealvc, @robotventures, @Delphi_Digital, @symbolicvc, @primitivecrypto, @NomadCapital_io, @hack_vc, @Arrington_Cap, @hypersphere_vc, @IDGCapital, @caseykcaruso, @ProtagonistaXYZ, @FoliusVentures, @Sky9Capital, @CanonicalCrypto, @mirana, @ForesightVen, @HashKey_Capital, @TheSpartanGroup, @DispersionVC, and others. Sentient plans to create a thriving ecosystem of AI researchers, developers, and users. Today we invite you to help us build a community dedicated to the ethical development of AI. Join us by following this account and get ready to receive further updates!”
Leading the seed financing Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Not only that, among the other participating investors were Robot Ventures, Delphi, Republic, and Arrington Capital.
Sentient: the crypto project that aims to develop an AI platform on open-source code
The basic idea of Sentient is to address concerns about the proliferation ofAI which sees the underlying code concentrated in the hands of a few superpowers like Google or Meta.
In practice, open-source code is what is shared publicly, allowing anyone to use it. It is the backbone of blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, creating decentralization.
In this regard, Sentient is a crypto project as it will be built on Polygon. In fact, Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon and one of the main contributors to Sentient, said:
“Building an open-source platform for AI development, we intend to ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed equitably and that its development aligns with the interests of humanity as a whole”.
Sentient will enter the testnet phase this quarter and will use the funds from this seed round to develop its platform and attract talent from AI research and blockchain engineering into its team.
Other investments of Thiel’s Founders Fund in the crypto sector
Recently, Peter Thiel and his venture capital company, Founders Fund, participated in another strong investment in the crypto sector.
This is Avail Blockchain, the Polygon project that builds a modular infrastructure, which has obtained in its Series A funding, a whopping 43 million dollars.
Here too, leading the financing was Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, along with Dragonfly and Cyber Fund.
In addition to the projects, Thiel’s fund, former CEO of PayPal, has also dedicated itself to the crypto sector in a more direct way. In mid-February 2024, in fact, it emerged that Thiel had invested as much as 200 million dollars in Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2023.
Specifically, Thiel purchased 100 million dollars of BTC and 100 million dollars of ETH, just before the bull run of crypto prices that occurred in 2024.