Back in March of this year, the trio of Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and SingularityNET broke the internet and shocked both the blockchain and AI communities by announcing a powerful merger. The formation of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance may have taken everyone by surprise, but it foreshadowed an interesting trend - mergers and acquisitions for AI dominance.
The Alliance was followed in April by Thoma Bravo’s $5.3bn acquisition of Darktrace, an AI cybersecurity pioneer. In the same week, Cisco purchased Splunk, a platform for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated data, for $28bn. Another deal set to be finalized is HPE’s $14bn agreement for Juniper Networks, a leading provider of AI networking solutions. The multi-billion dollar agreements keep coming.
Last week, another major AI merger was announced, with SingularityDAO, Cogito Finance, and SelfKey coming together to “build the foundation for the tokenized AI economy”. This strategic token merger of $SDAO, $CGV, and $KEY will result in the creation of Singularity Finance ($SFI) an EVM Layer-2 for Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization (using AI).
What stands out about this latest merger is that it brings together three of the most interesting, potential-laden, and lucrative areas of tech right now - blockchain, AI, and RWA. The only thing left now is for the DAO to vote, with the community given until October 31st to make the final decision on whether this momentous merger will go through or not.
What is meant by Artificial Intelligence tokenization, and why is this exciting for the rest of us? Well, the three companies all believe that there is considerable demand for tokenized AI assets, with GPUs being a particular area of interest. Integrating these RWAs into DeFi applications will accelerate Web3 and create new on-chain opportunities for investment, helping smaller AI innovators to compete for attention and funding in this competitive and emerging space.
There are numerous present challenges faced by those who want to purchase, access and utilize AI-related assets, with SFI confidently boasting the compliant infrastructure to solve them. Its Layer2 is reported to come with built-in legal frameworks, distribution channels, a marketplace, and AI-driven asset management tools to support all kinds of AI market participants.
As stated, there’s a trend emerging that sees AI firms band together and leverage their unique specialities to create something far more useful and powerful than their individual capabilities. In the case of SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol, we saw that SingularityNET were focused on AGI, Fetch.ai were developing AI agents, and Ocean Protocol were leading the charge for trading tokenized AI data. Combining these three areas not only showed huge ambition, but it gave them the unique combination of talent, research, and niche expertise to build something that only they could.
Over the last two quarters, we’ve also seen various other important mergers and acquisitions at the intersection of crypto and AI. ChainGPT collaborated with KuCoin and Gate.io to launch Wisdomise AI, an AI-powered crypto adviser and assistant. KIP Protocol partnered with Aethir to drive AI model development. The enterprise blockchain platform Crossmint acquired Cycle AI and integrated their tools, tech, and some of the team. Astral Dynamic Networks (Astradyne) acquired WealthIntel to bring AI and blockchain tools and knowledge to global commerce systems. There are countless more examples we could list.
The Singularity Finance trio’s mission to bring RWAs on-chain appears to be the logical combination of their talents, technology, audience, markets, and research. Cogito Finance has built the tokenization framework for decentralized markets, SelfKey has the identity solution required for compliance, and Singularity’s Layer-2 boasts AI-powered financial tools services for automated analysis, portfolio, and risk management. When you merge these three areas of tech, blockchain, and AI together, you’re naturally going to arrive at a comprehensive and useful conclusion. This, no doubt, is going to inspire other alliances in the crypto and AI space to formalize their partnerships and reach the next level.
With Morgan Creek planning a $500m war chest for AI and blockchain investments, Pantera announcing a $200m fund to acquire crypto-AI startups, and Grayscale launching their decentralized AI fund, there’s no time like now. Mega mergers like Artificial Superintelligence Alliance and Singularity Finance could lead to a crypto-AI domino effect. AI startups may ultimately be presented with a choice - be swallowed up by a much bigger entity that wants to acquire the IP, tech, and knowledge, or merge with similarly aligned companies to continue building on the same path, with the end goal being to create something even more powerful.