OceanPal Inc., a Nasdaq-listed shipping company, has closed a $120 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction to fund its new subsidiary, SovereignAI Services LLC. SovereignAI will focus on commercializing the NEAR Protocol, a blockchain platform designed for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. The initiative involves establishing a NEAR-based digital asset treasury and an AI cloud infrastructure.

The $120 million PIPE transaction involved the purchase and sale of common stock and/or pre-funded warrants to acquire shares of common stock. The net proceeds from this offering are designated to fund SovereignAI Services LLC and its core objectives. Specifically, these funds will be utilized to implement a blockchain-native digital asset treasury strategy, with a central focus on accumulating NEAR tokens. A key financial objective for SovereignAI is to acquire at least 10% of the NEAR token's total supply over time.

Several prominent crypto-native entities, including Kraken, Proximity, Fabric Ventures, and G20 Group, alongside the NEAR Foundation, participated in the transaction. Clear Street LLC and Cohen & Company Capital Markets served as financial advisors and placement agents.

Through SovereignAI, OceanPal aims to establish itself as a leading publicly traded investment vehicle, offering direct exposure to the NEAR token and the foundational AI infrastructure that underpins autonomous agent commerce. This strategy aligns with the company's vision of "universal AI sovereignty," a shared objective with the NEAR Foundation. By leveraging the NEAR Protocol's vertically integrated AI stack, SovereignAI intends to build decentralized, privacy-first, and regulatory-compliant AI solutions tailored for various industries, including finance, healthcare, and media.

Sal Ternullo, OceanPal's newly appointed Co-CEO, stated that NEAR presents the greatest asymmetric upside across mature projects in the digital asset market, which the company aims to capture and offer to its shareholders. SovereignAI's advisory board will be chaired by Illia Polosukhin, CEO and co-founder of NEAR Foundation. Other advisors include representatives from OpenAI, Nscale, Sandhill East, and Quicknode.

Polosukhin stated that he looks forward to working with SovereignAI to realize a shared vision of achieving true universal AI sovereignty by enabling private, user-owned AI and autonomous agent commerce. He believes the NEAR Protocol's AI-centric tech stack will allow user-owned AI to meet its moment.

Following the transaction, OceanPal will continue to operate as a global provider of shipping transportation services, specializing in the ownership and operation of dry bulk vessels and product tankers.

The company had previously received shareholder approval for this decision at the annual meeting on May 20, 2025.

OceanPal's substantial investment into SovereignAI and the NEAR Protocol has significant implications for the broader Web3 ecosystem and corporate adoption trends. This transaction highlights increasing institutional confidence in the convergence of blockchain and AI technologies. The strategic goal of acquiring a substantial portion of the NEAR token supply could lead to increased liquidity and demand for the asset, potentially impacting its market valuation.