August 15, 2025
5 min read
@SiliconANGLE
Sentient Foundation has launched The GRID, a novel open-source platform designed to foster a decentralized network of AI intelligence. This initiative allows developers to monetize and coordinate their AI agents across real-world environments, differentiating itself from proprietary marketplaces by being developer-led and open to all.
At its inception, The GRID boasts a robust ecosystem featuring over 40 specialized agents, 50 data sources, and more than 10 AI models. Notable agents include the generative graphics engine Napkin and the search startup Exa Inc. The platform's reach extends across multiple blockchains, including Base, BNB, Polygon, Arbitrum, Celo, and Near, demonstrating a strong commitment to interoperability and a broad developer base. A key innovation of The GRID is its foundation for agent composability, enabling seamless routing of multiple requests through various AI agents.
Users can interact with The GRID through Sentient Chat, a consumer-friendly interface facilitating the discovery, invocation, and composition of agents and data sources into task workflows. These agents are capable of performing complex, real-world tasks such as calendar coordination, code generation, wallet data visualization, and search result synthesis, moving beyond simple prompt execution.
Sentient co-founder Himanshu Tyagi highlighted The GRID as "the world’s largest collection of open-source intelligence and the economic rails that allow it to scale," emphasizing its role in providing foundational infrastructure for the long-term viability of open-source AI. The platform offers developers transparency, monetization pathways, and distribution opportunities. Builders can integrate their own agents, models, or tools and earn token-based rewards through user staking on their preferred components. The GRID also supports a wider array of open AI "artifacts," including datasets and compute resources, all of which are designed for integration, composition, and monetization.
Users benefit from clear provenance for AI agents and the flexibility to customize, compose, or swap components. Sentient's staking mechanism creates a virtuous cycle: increased user conviction in an agent leads to more funding and better visibility, thereby democratizing innovation and economic rewards. Sentient has developed several key open-source technologies to support its ecosystem, including Dobby, an AI model aligned with community values, and advanced frameworks like Open Deep Search and the Recursive Open Meta-Agent, which reportedly outperform proprietary models in reasoning and search benchmarks.
Tyagi concluded by stating, "Closed labs are racing to lock down AGI for themselves. The GRID flips that model. It ensures intelligence is built in the open, distributed globally, and governed by the communities who rely on it." Sentient Foundation, a venture capital-backed startup, has secured $85 million in funding from prominent investors, underscoring significant market confidence in its vision.
Source: Sentient launches The GRID to connect and make money from open AI agents - SiliconANGLE
Source: Sentient launches The GRID to connect and make money from open AI agents - SiliconANGLE