In a remarkable display of financial exuberance, the last four days have witnessed an unprecedented influx of capital into the domains of artificial intelligence (AI), cryptocurrency, and blockchain startups. An astonishing $207.28 million has been allocated across 14 distinct projects and companies. Dominating this funding frenzy is Sentient, an avant-garde open-source AI platform, which secured a staggering $85 million from notable investors including Founders Fund, Framework Ventures, and Pantera Capital.

A Four-Day Investment Bonanza

In the embryonic days of July, a plethora of AI, crypto, and blockchain ventures amassed a colossal $207.28 million. This surge in capital was predominantly facilitated through pre-seed, seed, token-raise, and Series A funding rounds. Sentient, spearheading this monetary deluge, garnered $85 million—accounting for a significant 41% of the total capital influx over these four days. Sentient’s platform is at the vanguard of artificial general intelligence (AGI) development, underscoring its allure to high-profile investors.

The seed round for Sentient witnessed substantial participation from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Framework Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Robot Ventures, and Hashkey Capital. Trailing Sentient, Tabi Chain, a modular game layer one (L1) blockchain within the Cosmos ecosystem, raised $16.08 million through a public token offering. Close on its heels, Lombard, a pioneering startup intent on integrating Bitcoin into the decentralized finance (DeFi) realm, secured $16 million.

Lombard’s funding was helmed by Polychain Capital with significant contributions from Okx, Bitget, Nomad, Foresight Ventures, and ABCDE. Another notable entrant, Atlanta-based Prodia, specializing in distributed GPU networks for AI inference solutions, attracted $15 million in seed funding.

Dragonfly Capital led Prodia’s funding round, attracting additional capital from Hashkey Capital, Web3.com, Index Ventures, Symbolic Capital, and Okx Ventures. In fifth place, Redstone, a blockchain entity focusing on oracle services, clinched $15 million in a Series A round on July 2, 2024. Additionally, Pi Squared and Astria each amassed $12.5 million.

Pi Squared is pioneering verifiable computing through zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, while Astria is developing modular blockchain innovations. Other significant capital raises in July include Sendblocks ($8.2M), Openledger ($8M), QED Protocol ($6M), Mamori ($5M), Compute Labs ($3M), Onaji ($2.5M), and Nubila Network, which also secured $2.5 million.