OceanPal Makes Bold Move into AI and Blockchain with $120M Investment in NEAR

OceanPal invests $120M in SovereignAI, launching AI and blockchain ventures with NEAR Protocol.

Fridah Kangai
October 29, 2025
2:30 am

Fridah Kangai

Fridah Kangai is a dedicated crypto journalist with a sharp eye for market trends, blockchain innovation, and digital asset movements. She specializes in breaking down complex topics into clear, engaging stories for both seasoned investors and curious newcomers. With a passion for decentralization and a pulse on the ever-evolving crypto space, Fridah delivers timely, accurate, and insightful coverage. Her work bridges the gap between technology and everyday understanding in the world of cryptocurrency.

OceanPal invests $120M to launch AI, blockchain-focused subsidiary.
NEAR Protocol powers SovereignAI’s digital asset strategy, AI cloud platform.
OceanPal’s pivot into blockchain and AI signals major business transformation.

OceanPal Inc., a Nasdaq-listed shipping company, has made a bold move into the world of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) with a $120 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal. The funds will support the launch of SovereignAI Services LLC, a subsidiary dedicated to building digital asset and AI infrastructure, in collaboration with the NEAR Foundation.

A range of crypto-native investors, including Kraken, Proximity, Fabric Ventures, and G20 Group, joined the investment round. The funds will be utilized to apply a blockchain-native digital asset approach centered on the NEAR Protocol. Moreover, SovereignAI will create a secret AI cloud technology based on NEAR and Nvidia technologies.

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NEAR Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain that enables scalable, decentralized applications, compatible with AI and machine learning.

OceanPal intends to be a public investment vehicle in this venture, exposing itself to the NEAR token and the advanced AI infrastructure that enables autonomous agent commerce. SovereignAI wants to acquire at least 10% of all NEAR tokens in the long term.

Some of the most notable personalities to be included in the advisory board are Illia Polosukhin, co-founder and CEO of the NEAR Foundation, and Lukasz Kaiser, a researcher at OpenAI.

OceanPal Expands into Tech with Blockchain and AI Ventures

The new venture of OceanPal represents a significant shift in strategy for the company, which does not limit itself to its conventional shipping operations. The co-CEO of OceanPal, Sal Ternullo, pointed to the potential of the NEAR Protocol, noting that it has the highest asymmetric upside in the digital asset market.

He emphasized that the vertically integrated tech stack at NEAR would enable the development of decentralized, privacy-centric AI applications in the finance, healthcare, and media industries.

OceanPal aims to create the next-generation AI infrastructure through its strategic alliance with the NEAR Foundation. As David Schwed, the COO at OceanPal, indicated, the company has found itself at the intersection of two revolutionary technologies: AI and digital ownership.

Due to the strong security and trust capabilities of NEAR, OceanPal will open the door to the future of the autonomous agent business and AI sovereignty.

This action places OceanPal at the edge of an ever-increasing sphere of technologies, broadening its business to include blockchain and AI without abandoning its shipping operations—the SovereignAI strategic investment preconditions novel growth perspectives in the digital assets arena.

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