NEAR Protocol Launches Revolutionary AI Products: NEAR AI Cloud and Private Chat

NEAR AI Cloud and Private Chat, which provide hardware-protected and verifiable privacy for AI. These innovations are based on the principle that users should own their AI, and they are already integrated with partners such as Brave Nightly, OpenMind AGI, and Phala Network, serving over 100 million users.

Key Features of NEAR AI Cloud

NEAR AI Cloud is a cloud service for confidential computing, where each request is processed in an isolated environment using hardware technologies like Intel TDX and NVIDIA Confidential Computing. Data remains inaccessible even to Near AI itself or equipment owners, and each inference generates a cryptographic proof (attestation) that can be independently verified. The service is compatible with the OpenAI API, making it easier for developers to migrate existing AI applications. It supports streaming, KV caching, and persistent model storage, adding only 5-10% latency, and scales to 100 requests per second per tenant.

This product has already been tested in real-world conditions with high traffic and strict compliance requirements, making it production-ready. According to Near Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin:

"Everyone should own their AI. Today, Near AI takes a big step toward the vision of user-owned AI with the launch of private, verifiable AI products. Privacy and verifiability are essential to maximizing the available AI context for users and businesses."

Private Chat: Private AI for Everyday Use

Private Chat, built on NEAR AI Cloud, introduces verifiable privacy into everyday queries and research. Users can ask questions to leading open AI models without the risk of data or chat leaks. This makes AI accessible to everyone while maintaining full privacy, from advice to planning. Integration with the NEAR wallet is already available, simplifying entry for ecosystem users.

Community Reactions and Integrations

The launch has elicited positive feedback in the crypto community. On X, users praise the focus on privacy, for example, the integration with OpenMind AGI robotics, where NEAR AI Cloud provides private intelligence for home robots, anonymizing data on the device. Other posts highlight how this positions Near as a leader in trusted AI infrastructure, with an emphasis on user ownership. In Near's 2026 roadmap, the emphasis is on private AI and secure chats, with plans for multimodal models and private portable memory.

This move is part of Near's broader strategy for decentralized confidential machine learning (DCML), where the NEAR token will be used for settlements, verification, and incentives. Experts like Illia Polosukhinemphasize that centralized AI locks data and computation in the hands of a few, while Near offers an open, fast, and community-driven alternative.

Market Impact and Future

The launch underscores Near's transition to a "blockchain for AI," supporting over 1.6 million unique users through NEAR Intents and integrations with 25+ chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

This not only solves privacy issues in AI but also paves the way for mass adoption in Web3, where trust and user experience are key. In the future, Near plans to expand to multimodal models and uses beyond inference, making verifiable privacy the standard for all AI applications.