A comprehensive review of Binance AI investment portfolio: Who will be the next Alpha leader?

Original title: "A review of Binance AI investment, who will be the next Alpha leader?"

Original author: Tyler Web3

Who will be the next leader in the AI & Web3 narrative?

As the main storyline that closely follows the pulse of global technology in 2024, the AI & Web3 track once set off a small market climax after Binance launched the leading project Bittensor (TAO) in April. Related tokens ushered in a general rise, but it was a pity that it failed to form a sustained heat. Under the surface, Binance's bet on AI is accelerating significantly:

Since this year, whether it is Aggregata's selection into the latest MVB accelerator program, or Binance Labs' official announcement of large investments in Sahara AI and Myshell, and Sleepless AI and io.net's listing on Binance,Binance's multiple investment vehicles have frequently made moves in the field of AI & Web3, and the pace has greatly accelerated.

The grass snakes are gray, and the veins are thousands of miles away. Binance's increased investment in the AI track is undoubtedly stirring up a pool of spring water as a new variable, and it is likely to give birth to a batch of new Alpha projects with amazing growth and volume, taking over the banner of TAO.

In this context, who will become the catalyst for the new round of "AI & Web3" market, and which project will become the new explosion point for the overflow of Binance funds and ecological resources?

Binance's AI layout strategy and investment handle

First, we need to understand how Binance views the AI & Web3 narrative?

In a recent interview, Binance co-founder He Yi publicly shared his views on the development of AI and its integration with blockchain technology, saying that "AI technology is triggering a productivity revolution, and its influence is far beyond our imagination. That is, blockchain technology mainly changes labor relations and profit distribution patterns, while AI is a revolutionary technology that directly improves user productivity."

In terms of specific investment strategies, He Yi divides it into several key modules-at the application level, the most common are products like OpenAI chatbots, which can assist in diverse tasks such as writing, designing, and making videos; behind them are large language model (LLM) development teams; further upstream are computing power providers, and NVIDIA's dominant position in this field makes it difficult for other competitors to catch up.

To put it bluntly, Binance's focus on the AI & Web3 track spans almost all product dimensions. As long as it can provide high-quality products and services and has the potential to become a successful business model, it is included in the list of potential investments.

So if we want to dig out Binance's existing projects in the AI narrative, where should we start? In fact, as long as we grasp the three main lines, we can hold the bull's nose of any popular narrative that Binance has laid out.

That’s right. Currently, Binance mainly completes the stage layout of the entire life cycle (early incubation, investment support, and online trading) of AI and other track projects through three “investment levers” in the project development stage - incubator model (MVB, Binance Labs incubation plan), Binance Labs, and exchange-listed tokens:

· Incubator model, including MVB and Binance Labs incubation plan, through an incubation process similar to YC, it covers a large number of start-up teams, explores early potential projects in the form of casting a wide net, and provides multi-dimensional support covering market strategy and user growth. After the final screening, it invests in some projects with a relatively small amount to help complete the incubation from 0 to 1;

Binance Labs, as Binance’s venture capital and incubation department, is committed to Web3 For high-quality projects in various tracks and fields, the product architecture, business model, and team of the investment targets are more mature, and the investment amount is larger, aiming to provide in-depth resource integration for the projects, so as to promote the rapid growth of the projects and gain a leading position in the market competition;

· Exchange-listed tokens are an important market goal for mature crypto projects, which can help them gain huge exposure and directly reach the largest user and capital pool;

Binance also uses these three "investment levers" to almost cover the staggered layout of different projects in the AI track throughout their life cycle (early incubation, investment support, and listing and trading), thereby promoting the development of AI projects at different stages from various dimensions and sharing the overall growth dividend of the AI track.

A Panoramic Review of Binance’s AI Layout

Based on these three “investment levers”, what projects does Binance’s AI layout currently include? (Note: In view of the continued strengthening of the integration trend of AI and Web3, the AI projects listed below do not involve other track projects that combine AI technology, and are mainly aimed at native AI projects with core elements of artificial intelligence (data processing, model algorithms, computing power training, etc.) and actual application scenarios)?

1. Incubator Model (Selection and Investment)

It should be noted that, as mentioned above, the general process of Binance incubator model (MVB, Binance Labs incubation program) includes audition - selection - incubation camp - observation - selective investment. Therefore, AI projects related to the incubator model can often be divided into two categories: only selected for the incubator, selected for the incubator and further obtained investment. Here we mainly focus on projects that have been selected and obtained investment:

· Privasea (formerly Nulink): a decentralized artificial intelligence network that realizes the circulation of data value through FHEML and provides distributed computing resources for FHE AI operations. In May 2022, it was selected into Binance Labs’ fourth quarter incubation program. In March 2024, it announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, with Binance Labs and others participating in the investment. DIN (Web3Go): A modular AI-native data preprocessing layer, DIN (Web3Go) was selected into the MVB accelerator program in 2023 and completed a $4 million seed round of financing led by Binance Labs in July. Sleepless AI: An AI blockchain-based virtual companion game that leverages AIGC and LLM to create rich story-based gameplay and organic interactions with characters. In April 2023, Sleepless AI was officially selected for the 6th MVB Accelerator Program, and in August 2023, it further received investment from Binance Labs through the 6th MVB Accelerator Program;

· QnA3.AI: An AI-driven Web3 knowledge sharing platform, it was selected for the Binance Labs 6th Incubation Program in September 2023, and further received investment from Binance Labs in March 2024. Its current FDV is US$77 million;

· NFPrompt (NFP): An AI-based Web3 content creation platform that allows users to create, own and profit from digital art and NFTs through various AI tools and interfaces. In September 2023, it was selected into the sixth season of the Binance Labs Incubation Program, and in March 2024, it received further investment from Binance Labs;

· MyShell: A decentralized AI ecosystem that allows everyone to build, own, and share artificial intelligence applications. In September 2023, MyShell was selected into the sixth season of the Incubation Program, and in August 2024, Binance Labs officially announced its investment in MyShell through the sixth season of the Incubation Program;

· Aggregata: A decentralized data market based on AI, which allows users to fully control the ownership of their AI elements by aggregating high-quality data in the AI field and decentralized storage systems. In March 2024, Aggregata was officially selected for the 7th MVB Accelerator Program, and in August 2024, it further received investment from Binance Labs through the 7th MVB Accelerator Program;

2. Binance Labs (Direct Investment)

Unlike projects selected for the incubator and further incubated by Binance Labs, projects that have received direct investment from Binance Labs have larger investment amounts, higher valuations, and are Web3 projects with more mature product architectures, business models, and teams.

· Arkham: An AI-driven blockchain intelligence and data platform that provides sophisticated information and visualization tools for on-chain activities. It will be launched on Binance in July 2023, and Binance Labs will officially invest in Arkham's native token ARKM in November 2023; Sahara AI: It pioneered the concept of "AI assets" and is committed to building a blockchain-based AI platform to provide users and developers with secure control and "copyright" protection of their AI assets, so that all participants' contributions can be fairly attributed and rewarded. In August 2024, Sahara AI officially announced the completion of a $43 million financing, led by Binance Labs, Polychain, etc.; 3. Exchange-listed tokens Fetch.ai (FET): A blockchain-based machine learning platform that aims to enable traditional products to access AI through Fetch.ai tokens without changing the underlying business applications. It was launched on Binance in February 2019, and its current FDV is 2.8 billion US dollars;

NFPrompt (NFP): After being selected for the 6th season Binance Labs incubation program and receiving investment from Binance Labs, NFP was launched on Binance Launchpool in December 2023, and its current FDV is 190 million US dollars;

Sleepless AI (AI): After being selected for the 6th season MVB accelerator program and receiving investment from Binance Labs, AI was launched on Binance Launchpool in January 2024 and listed on Binance, and its current FDV is 360 million US dollars;

Bittensor (TAO): A decentralized AI network that operates as a central network consisting of smaller, specialized subnetworks, each dedicated to different areas of AI. In April 2024, Binance launched TAO, with a current FDV of $11.4 billion;

io.net: A decentralized cloud computing platform designed to aggregate GPU resources for AI and machine learning companies. In June 2024, Binance Launchpool launched IO, with a current FDV of $1.2 billion;

In general, Binance used to cast a wide net in the field of AI mainly through the incubator model (MVB, Binance Labs incubation program); and Binance Labs direct investment, which has a larger investment amount and truly intervenes in the level of resource integration, is undoubtedly the most important in Binance's layout. So far, there are only two projects, Sahara AI and Arkham.

However, it is worth noting that, since ARKM has already been listed on Binance, among Binance's direct investment AI projects, Sahara AI is the only one that has not issued a coin/listed on Binance.

Who is the Binance betting project with the most "Alpha" attributes?

As mentioned above, Binance's layout strategy for the AI & Web3 track mainly focuses on promoting the combination of AI and blockchain technology, thereby promoting the development of decentralized applications (DApps), that is, preferring to use blockchain technology to empower the underlying infrastructure built by the AI ecosystem.

From this perspective, if TAO has gradually become the Beta of the ballast in the field of AI, then Sahara AI, as a platform project that includes the application layer + model algorithms listed by He Yi, is likely to be the new Alpha leader that Binance will take over from TAO in the second half:

At present, AI narratives are essentially games for giants, lacking a set of AI infrastructure that truly allows small and medium-sized innovators and ordinary users to build and share, and Sahara AI is aiming at this differentiated direction - through the pioneering AI asset concept and proprietary infrastructure, the development, deployment and monetization of AI assets (covering AI models, data sets, agents and other AI-related assets) are more democratized:

Whether you are a professional developer, entrepreneur or ordinary enthusiast, you can easily build or deploy personalized AI products based on Sahara AI, and earn income by contributing, developing, and deploying AI assets, and jointly build and share a more democratic and fair AI collaborative ecosystem.

Sahara AI consists of four layers of architecture: application, transaction, data, and execution, which form the foundation of the Sahara AI collaborative economy and provide a seamless experience for developers, data providers, and users. It is expected to catalyze a "Cambrian Explosion" of personalized and innovative AI use cases:

· Application layer: Sahara AI provides tools such as asset security vaults, decentralized AI markets, programless toolkits, and Sahara ID to ensure data privacy and promote fair compensation, and further simplify the process of creating and deploying AI for all users;

· Transaction layer: driven by the Sahara blockchain, which is used to handle all transactions related to AI assets, ensuring that every operation can be securely recorded, authenticated, attributed, and verified. In addition, Sahara AI's native precompilation function is designed to optimize AI processing, and can perform efficient computing directly in the blockchain environment to improve system performance;

· Data layer: unified management of on-chain data (key AI The Sahara AI platform integrates the on-chain AI layer, asset metadata, attribution, commitment and proof) and off-chain data (important data sets, AI models and supplementary information), focusing on irreversible operations and records, ensuring the credibility and transparency of the system, and ensuring the integrity and security of data through encryption technology;

· The execution layer, as the off-chain AI infrastructure of the Sahara AI platform, interacts seamlessly with the transaction layer and the data layer, executes and manages protocols related to AI computing and functions, securely extracts data from the data layer, and dynamically allocates computing resources to achieve optimal performance;

In a nutshell, Sahara AI is expected to develop into an AI platform-type infrastructure open to all users, which will bring together the largest user group, whether professional developers, entrepreneurs or ordinary enthusiasts, can easily build or deploy personalized AI products based on Sahara.

On this basis, Sahara AI can activate the dividends of the largest number of users, funds and market attention in the AI track, and bring new vitality and possibilities to the entire AI track.

This may also be the reason why top investment institutions such as Binance, Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital, and AI industry giants such as Together AI, Midjourney, and Anthrophic are willing to support it - a platform that can truly achieve co-construction and sharing and attract a large number of users and funds is undoubtedly of great appeal.

Summary

Looking back, Binance's layout in the AI track is now comprehensive and in-depth, and it is almost replicating He Yiwen's insights and judgments on the AI industry. It is indeed promoting Binance's development in this track around the huge potential of AI in the future financial field and even the entire society:

From early project incubation, to mid-term strategic investment, to later promotion of listing, it covers the entire life cycle of AI projects from incubation to investment to listing, and builds a complete AI ecosystem with a multi-level support strategy.

The narrative leader often has a benchmark effect on the valuation ceiling of the entire track. In theory, if Binance and other top venture capital institutions want to ignite the entire AI track and project layout, they will undoubtedly need a fire that can ignite market sentiment.

Although we still don’t know who this new leader will be and when it will arrive, it must at least have enough room for imagination and valuation ceiling. Therefore, with the support of top institutions such as Binance + differentiated infrastructure positioning, Sahara AI has to some extent shown the posture of taking over Bittensor (TAO).

Some of the hidden clues in the early stage will undoubtedly gradually emerge in the future, let us wait and see.