OceanPal Inc. has announced a $120 million private investment in public equity to fund its new subsidiary, SovereignAI Services LLC. The initiative, developed in partnership with NEAR Foundation, aims to merge blockchain and artificial intelligence to build a privacy-first digital infrastructure.
The company confirmed that SovereignAI will focus on commercializing the NEAR Protocol, a blockchain designed for AI-driven use cases. Through this move, OceanPal plans to position itself as the leading public investment vehicle providing exposure to NEAR’s native token and its AI ecosystem.
OceanPal’s Strategic Shift Toward AI and Blockchain
The Nasdaq-listed shipping firm will use the investment proceeds to expand beyond maritime operations into blockchain-based technology development. SovereignAI plans to accumulate NEAR tokens with the goal of acquiring up to 10% of the total supply over time.
According to OceanPal, the partnership with the NEAR Foundation represents a strategic move toward “universal AI sovereignty.” The new venture will build infrastructure that enables AI agents to operate autonomously and manage assets. It will also allow them to execute transactions while preserving privacy and ownership rights.
Co-CEO Sal Ternullo stated that the initiative targets enterprises across finance, healthcare, and media seeking privacy-preserving, regulatory-compliant AI solutions. "We believe NEAR presents the greatest asymmetric upside across mature projects in the digital asset market," Ternullo said.
He added that SovereignAI aims to leverage NEAR’s vertically integrated AI products to meet rising institutional demand for automation and scalable AI frameworks. The project will also utilize decentralized compute systems to support the development of confidential and user-owned AI models.
Ternullo, who previously served as a General Partner at A100x and held executive roles at State Street and KPMG, joined OceanPal to spearhead this technological transition. David Schwed, former Chief Information Security Officer at Robinhood, will join as Chief Operating Officer, bringing extensive cybersecurity and compliance expertise.
NEAR Foundation’s Role in Supporting SovereignAI
The NEAR Foundation will play a central role in SovereignAI’s development and governance. NEAR co-founder and CEO Illia Polosukhin will chair SovereignAI’s advisory board, which will include prominent figures from both traditional finance and the AI sector. Advisory members include Richard Muirhead of Fabric Ventures, Lukasz Kaiser from OpenAI, Philippe Sachs of Nscale, and Andy Brown from Sandhill East. Jackie Kennedy from Quicknode will also contribute, offering insights from infrastructure and cloud scaling environments.
Polosukhin described the collaboration as a significant step toward “true universal AI sovereignty.” He emphasized that NEAR’s architecture is designed to support secure, private AI operations that align with global data and compliance standards. "We look forward to working with SovereignAI to enable private, user-owned AI and agentic commerce," Polosukhin commented.
The transaction attracted significant investment from major players including Kraken, Proximity, Fabric Ventures, and G20 Group. Clear Street LLC and Cohen & Company Capital Markets acted as placement agents, while Sealion Capital LLC provided advisory services to OceanPal. Legal counsel was provided by Reed Smith LLP for NEAR, Seward & Kissel LLP for OceanPal, and Paul Hastings LLP for Clear Street and CCM.
SovereignAI’s strategic model represents a departure from passive crypto treasury management toward active infrastructure development. The company intends to leverage the yield generated from its balance sheet to invest in decentralized compute systems and expand blockchain-native AI networks. Chief Operating Officer David Schwed highlighted that SovereignAI aims to "go beyond treasury management to actively build infrastructure enabling privacy-preserving AI at scale."
The company will continue to manage OceanPal’s existing shipping business while concurrently expanding its AI division. OceanPal anticipates that this diversification will strengthen its market position by integrating established global trade operations with cutting-edge technology development.