ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, despite the sell-off in the U.S. stock market triggered by the DeepSeek R1 model causing the Roundhill "Seven Giants" ETF (MAGS) to drop 2.4% over the past five trading days, this technological breakthrough is creating new investment opportunities. Bank of America analyst Chun Him Cheung pointed out that the R1 model will significantly reduce AI computing costs and accelerate the widespread adoption of AI applications, thereby driving rapid growth in demand for high-speed network infrastructure.Zack Kass, former head of market expansion at OpenAI, stated that the DeepSeek R1 model is a significant breakthrough in the industry, with its innovative initiatives recognized by tech giants including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. T. Rowe Price technology stock portfolio manager Tony Wang emphasized that network infrastructure has become a major bottleneck for AI deployment, necessitating breakthroughs in technological innovation.In terms of specific investment targets, Stifel analyst Ruben Roy believes that network equipment manufacturers such as Ciena, Coherent, and Celestica will benefit significantly. Among them, Ciena has received new orders from cloud service providers, while Celestica will benefit from the trend of hyperscale companies developing custom chips independently. Morgan Stanley analyst Meta Marshall is optimistic about the growth prospects of Arista Networks, believing that the recent stock price correction provides a good entry opportunity, and has given it an "overweight" rating ahead of its earnings report on February 18.

ChainCatcher news, according to Caixin, in response to market rumors that ByteDance plans to invest $12 billion in developing AI infrastructure, including 40 billion RMB for AI chip procurement by 2025 and $6.8 billion in overseas investments, ByteDance officially denied the claims. Company insiders stated that while the company places great importance on the development of the AI field, the specific budget plans mentioned in the rumors are not true.

ChainCatcher news, the on-chain AI infrastructure Autonomys has launched the Auto Horizon Developer Challenge, where developers can build AI-driven decentralized applications (super DApps) or proof of concept (PoC) using the Auto SDK, with a chance to win up to 1000 USDC in prizes. This challenge will also provide an early version of the Auto SDK, including features such as Auto Drive (decentralized storage), Auto Consensus (consensus interaction capabilities), and Auto DAG Data (on-chain data preparation), to help developers realize their ideas.The submission deadline for the developer challenge is January 31, 2025, and winners will be announced in mid-February.

ChainCatcher News, U.S. President Trump announces artificial intelligence project. Trump stated that OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle announced the establishment of the "STARGATE" project, investing at least $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure. It is expected to create 100,000 jobs.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, the decentralized AI infrastructure Swan Chain has completed its latest round of $2 million financing, with participation from DWF Labs, Optimism Foundation, and Promotony.According to RootData, Swan Chain (formerly known as FilSwan) was launched in 2021 and is a decentralized infrastructure aimed at accelerating AI applications. Utilizing the Ethereum Layer 2 technology of OP Stack, Swan Chain combines Web3 with AI to provide a comprehensive solution covering storage, computing, bandwidth, and payments. By leveraging the underutilized computing power in the community data center network, Swan Chain can significantly reduce computing costs by up to 70%, while also monetizing idle computing assets.

ChainCatcher news, Zypher Network announced a partnership with Polyhedra to integrate the Expander zero-knowledge proof technology into its AI Agents and full-chain gaming tech stack. Expander brings efficiency and reliability to on-chain games with lightning-fast proof speeds and instant on-chain verification.This collaboration will support real-time verification of AI behaviors (such as NPCs, Bosses, etc.) on the EXPchain, enhancing immersion and player trust, while opening up a new paradigm for Web3 gaming, unlocking innovative designs like AI-driven tournaments and large Boss battles.It is reported that Expander, developed by the Polyhedra team, is a zero-knowledge proof system that supports high-throughput on-chain verification, setting new records in the industry. As a pioneer in the blockchain gaming field, Zypher Network will work with Polyhedra to launch more innovative gameplay and promote the development of the on-chain gaming ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, Syncracy Capital co-founder Daniel Cheung pointed out that despite a recent increase, the Crypto x AI sector currently accounts for only about 1% of the total market capitalization of the crypto market. As the market cycle develops, leading AI infrastructure, AI agent platforms, and AI agents may perform exceptionally well, with the sector's market capitalization expected to achieve a tenfold increase.

ChainCatcher news, the leading AI project in the Solana ecosystem, CAI | CharacterX, announced today the official launch of its AI infrastructure solution CAI, which provides enterprise-level services. CAI | CharacterX stated that with a 7-day enterprise-level deployment capability and full-stack infrastructure support from LLM to frontend, CAI has garnered interest and collaboration intentions from more well-known enterprises.CAI has been in trial operation for 2 months, reaching preliminary cooperation with several well-known enterprises and achieving a monthly revenue of $500,000. CAI | CharacterX is a project supported by the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, having won a top-three position in the 2024 Solana Hackathon and received millions of dollars in seed round investment from institutions such as Lightspeed Capital.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, AI infrastructure company PIN AI has completed a $10 million pre-seed funding round, with participation from a16z CSX, Hack VC, Blockchain Builders Fund (Stanford Blockchain Accelerator), Illia Polosukhin (founder of NEAR Protocol), Anagram/Lily Liu (chair of the Solana Foundation), Symbolic Capital (co-founder of Polygon), Evan Cheng (CEO of Mysten Labs/SUI), dcbuilder (Worldcoin Foundation), Foresight Ventures (parent company of The Block), Nomad Capital, Tim Shi (co-founder of Cresta), Ben Fisch (CEO of Espresso), Scott Moore (co-founder of Gitcoin), Alumni Ventures, and Dispersion Capital.It is reported that PIN AI is developing the world's first open-source Personal Intelligent Network (PIN). PIN AI's platform provides an open-source, web3-supported alternative to Apple Intelligence, turning smartphones into privacy-focused AI personal assistants. PIN AI's open platform connects privacy-protected user data through a Layer 2 blockchain.

According to ChainCatcher, sources reveal that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans to attract global investors to support the construction of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, which is becoming clearer, with a focus initially on launching in various states across the United States, expected to cost billions of dollars. The types of projects being discussed include building data centers, enhancing energy capacity and transmission through turbines and generators, and expanding semiconductor manufacturing. Supporters may include investors from Canada, South Korea, Japan, and the UAE. Other private companies are also expected to participate in the project. OpenAI's largest investor, Microsoft, may be a potential partner; however, Microsoft has not specifically commented on the project but stated that it is aware of and involved in any broad efforts related to infrastructure by the company.

ChainCatcher news, the decentralized AI infrastructure layer KIP Protocol has announced the completion of a $5 million private placement financing, led by Animoca Ventures and Tribe Capital. Other investors include GBV Capital, DWF Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, and others. So far, KIP Protocol has raised a total of $10 million.As the world's first underlying protocol supporting Decentralized Retrieval-Augmented Generation (dRAG), KIP Protocol provides cutting-edge Web3 infrastructure that enables app developers, model creators, and data owners to achieve seamless deployment, monetization, and full ownership in Web3. KIP Protocol offers a comprehensive suite of tools and services aimed at breaking the monopoly barriers in the AI industry, providing a fairer environment for AI developers and consumers. This round of financing will further advance KIP Protocol's mission for decentralized AI development by creating powerful and secure decentralized AI solutions that drive unprecedented applications and innovations.Previously, KIP Protocol officially announced a partnership with the leading AI Agent entertainment platform Moemate, leading 3 million Web2 AI users into Web3. KIP has also secured the management rights to a $10 million fund provided by Open Campus, collaborating to layout and explore the "DeAI + Education" landscape, and jointly building a leading, decentralized AI-driven online learning education platform OCU, offering personalized learning experiences and redefining decentralized education. Through these collaborations, KIP has realized real use cases for decentralized AI.

ChainCatcher news, the decentralized AI infrastructure Swan Chain has completed a $3 million seed round financing, led by Binance Labs and SNZ. Other participants include Outlier Ventures, Protocol Labs, Waterdrip Capital, FBG Capital, Chainlink Labs, Gate.io, Betterverse DAO, Chain Capital, Cabin.vc, LD, CSPDAO, W3coins, Criterion, and KONDR DAO.This round of financing ended in January 2023, and the funds will expand the Swan Chain team and further develop its resources for building AI blockchain infrastructure.According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, SwanChain (formerly known as FilSwan) was launched in 2021 and is a decentralized infrastructure aimed at accelerating AI applications. Utilizing OP Stack's Ethereum Layer 2 technology, SwanChain combines Web3 with AI to provide a comprehensive solution covering storage, computing, bandwidth, and payments.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, Network3 has reached a partnership with Hemera; Hemera will support Network3 in the direction of high-performance AI-Ready Data infrastructure. Both parties will work together to achieve the vision of AI and data democratization, jointly creating an efficient Web3 gateway.It is reported that Hemera is committed to solving the fragmentation issue in the modular ecosystem. Network3 aims to help global AI developers efficiently, conveniently, and economically perform large-scale inference, training, or validation of models by building an AI Layer2. Currently, there are over 210,000 nodes worldwide, covering 181 countries and regions.