Sui Makes a $30 Million Move for AI: DATA Network Shuts Down Its Own Network! Here Are the Details

The Sui Foundation is investing $30 million in $DATA Network, which tracks the source and usage rights of AI training data, and bringing the protocol to the Sui network.

Sui Foundation has formed a $30 million strategic partnership with $DATA Network, which focuses on AI training data. Under the agreement, $DATA Network will cease using its standalone blockchain and begin operating as a native protocol on Sui.

Existing $DATA tokens will be migrated to the new network at a one-to-one ratio. For every $DATA token held by users, the same amount of tokens will be created on Sui. The independent $DATA Network will continue to operate until the transition is complete. The foundation announced that a detailed schedule will be shared before the upgrade.

With this investment, Sui Foundation will become one of the largest institutional token holders for the project, alongside PIP Labs and $DATA Foundation. A key component of the partnership will be Walrus, a decentralized data storage platform. Applications developed by $DATA Foundation are planned to use Walrus as the default storage layer.

$DATA Network initially focused on general intellectual property infrastructure. In June, the project shifted its strategy to track the source, permissions, and payment processes of data used in training artificial intelligence models.

The project’s system, called Trace, records on the blockchain who provided training data and what usage rights they have. Payments to data providers can also be finalized through this infrastructure. According to the statement, Trace has recorded more than 250 million contributions since its launch and processes an average of over three million receipts per day.

The partnership aims to enable AI companies to access real-world data with explicitly defined usage permissions. However, it’s important to note that the $30 million investment doesn’t guarantee $DATA Network’s success. The transition schedule, the security of the token bridge, and the seamless transfer of user assets when the standalone network shuts down will be the most critical phases of the process.

*This is not investment advice.