Sui Foundation puts $30 million into an AI training-data network that will retire its own blockchain and move to Sui

The Sui Foundation is investing $30 million in DATA Network, a protocol for AI training data that will give up its own blockchain and rebuild on Sui, the two organisations said in a statement dated Monday.

Under the deal, DATA Network will be upgraded to run natively on Sui and its independent chain will be retired. The DATA token carries over one for one. The Sui Foundation becomes the network's largest institutional holder, while PIP Labs and the DATA Foundation keep their stakes. Walrus, an onchain data storage platform, becomes the default storage layer for the DATA Foundation's applications.

The DATA Foundation, formerly the Story Foundation, switched its focus to AI training data in June. Its registry, Trace, records where training data came from and what rights attach to it, and pays the contributor. The statement says Trace has logged more than 250 million contributions since launch and handles more than 3 million receipts a day. Those figures are the company's own.

"The AI industry has reached the point where the open internet has been read," said Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder and chief product officer of Mysten Labs, the original contributor to Sui, according to The Block.

The existing network keeps running until the move is complete. The foundation says it will publish a timeline and a transition plan for token holders first. SY Lee, chief executive of PIP Labs, joins the Sui Foundation as a strategic adviser.