crypto-news-flash.com
- Google and Meta have made bets on AI infrastructure this year, and their moves are reshaping not only tech but also the crypto market.
- AI-focused tokens such as Bittensor, Near Protocol, and Internet Computer rallied sharply on the news.
At the recent Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit, Alphabet’s CFO Ruth Porat revealed that Google is investing over $25 billion into building out data centers and AI infrastructure across the PJM grid, a massive power network serving 13 U.S. states.
Backing this move is a separate $3 billion deal to modernize two hydropower plants in Pennsylvania, marking the largest clean energy agreement ever linked to AI demand. It’s a major step toward aligning sustainability with the explosive growth of computing power.
Mark Zuckerberg made a similar announcement: Meta is pouring “hundreds of billions of dollars” into creating AI superclusters, including Prometheus, set to launch in 2026, and Hyperion, a planned 5-gigawatt cluster so large it could rival the footprint of Manhattan.
These moves by Big Tech signal an all-in bet on AI, but they also highlight the growing limitations of centralized infrastructure. That’s where AI tokens and decentralized networks come into play.
AI Tokens in Focus
Bittensor ($TAO) is a decentralized machine learning network where developers are rewarded in $TAO tokens for contributing valuable AI models, much like mining, but with intelligence instead of hardware. Right now, $TAO’s market cap is sitting around $4.1 billion, down just 1.9% in the past 24 hours. But zoom out a bit, and it’s been on a tear, up 21% this past week, currently trading at $429.78.
If the price manages to close above the key $440 resistance level, it could open the door for more gains, possibly pushing toward $458, which lines up with the 50% Fibonacci retracement. Over the past month, $TAO has climbed an impressive 19% and by 32% in the past year.
Over the past week, $ICP has surged 7.21%, with a modest 0.65% gain today, currently trading around $5.62. With a total supply of 535 million tokens and a market cap of around $3.16 billion, $ICP is slowly regaining attention, especially as interest in AI-powered blockchains heats up.
One crypto enthusiast summed up the sentiment perfectly: “Almost everyone will hear about $ICP when it’s at $50. Bookmark this.”
$NEAR Protocol ($NEAR ) is also carving out a unique space in Web3 as a developer-friendly, layer-1 blockchain focused on usability, scalability, and cross-chain interoperability. Rather than competing with other blockchains, $NEAR is working to connect them through its Blockchain Operating System (BOS), allowing users and developers to interact with multiple chains through a unified interface.
In a notable development, Crypto News Flash reported that Bitwise Asset Management launched a $NEAR Staking ETP on Germany’s Deutsche Börse Xetra exchange.
This product provides institutional investors with exposure to $NEAR, offering annual staking rewards of up to 5.5% after fees, which signals growing interest in $NEAR’s long-term potential and its role in the evolving crypto and AI infrastructure space.
Recently, $NEAR has shown strong market performance, up 2.27% in the past 24 hours and 15% over the last week, now trading around $2.74. If it continues to hold above its 100-day EMA (approximately $2.55), there’s potential for a move toward the $3 mark.