Recently, I chatted with a few friends in AI, and everyone is lamenting: in today's AI circle, closed-source giants seem to be building a 'digital enclosure', while Sentient is doing something more ambitious and 'crazy' — they want to turn open-source AI into a production line that can operate automatically and allow everyone to make money.
The reason it is said to be ambitious can be understood from the capital's instincts. Sentient has just completed a $85 million seed round of financing, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Given the current market sentiment, everyone expects it to aim for a 'billion-dollar valuation'. After all, if it can really establish a value settlement logic for open-source AI, then this is not just a project, but the underlying protocol for an era.
How does it solve the 'pain points' of open source?
The biggest embarrassment of open source AI in the past was: once the weights are published, the whole world uses them, but the originators receive not a penny. Sentient has created a set of OML (Open Source Monetization Protocol), which is fundamentally about fingerprinting the model. This means that you can track how many times your model has been called, who is using it, and monetize it.
This logic of 'allowing open source developers to stand tall and make money', combined with their ROMA framework that can break down complex tasks, has directly elevated the performance and commercial imagination of open source AI to a level that can compete with closed-source giants.
Why is tonight worth watching?
In the end, all technological narratives must come down to value distribution. The native token of Sentient $SENT is the 'fuel' for the entire GRID network. Whether it's calling the Agents inside or settling copyright fees, it cannot be bypassed.
Today, this project with the potential of a '100 billion large model' is finally about to open a new round of entry opportunities.
Knock on the blackboard, highlight a key point:
Project: Sentient $SENT
Channel: Binance Web3 Wallet (Phase 4 Prime Sale Pre-TGE)
Subscription time: January 19, 2026 (which is today!) from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM (UTC+8)
This window period only lasts for a short two hours. Given the current heat of the waiting list of over 2 million, tonight is going to be another big battle.
Lastly, let me add: the emergence of Sentient is actually telling the market that AI should not just be a game for a few giants. If you also believe that open source is the ultimate future, then tonight's competition on 'intelligent distribution rights' at 8 PM is indeed worth participating in.
