a16z Crypto leads $15 million to support the Decentralization Data Layer Poseidon

The decentralized artificial intelligence data infrastructure project Poseidon recently announced the completion of a $15 million seed round financing, led by a well-known venture capital firm. This funding will be used to accelerate the construction of a full-stack data layer aimed at robots, multimodal models, and next-generation physical AI, with the goal of addressing key bottlenecks in AI development: high-quality, intellectual property-secure, and traceable data acquisition.

Sandeep Chinchali, the chief scientist of Poseidon, stated: "In today's world where models and computing power are increasingly commoditized, the real competitive barrier is data."

The mission of Poseidon is to extend the programmable intellectual property layer to real-world data and AI training scenarios. The project is committed to building an underlying protocol that supports programmable ownership, licensing, and attribution of creative and AI assets, and further utilizing these capabilities to support the circulation and compliant use of data for AI.

AI from digital to physical, data bottleneck exacerbates

In the past two years, AI has made significant breakthroughs in the fields of text and images. As AI extends into the physical world scenarios such as robotics, autonomous driving, and smart devices, the demand for real-world data has surged dramatically.

However, the existing data collection model faces three major structural challenges:

1. Scarcity of long-tail data: The collection cost of high-value data (such as POV videos, 3D simulations, and edge sensors) is high, and the sources are dispersed.
2. Licensing and Compliance Risks: Traditional data chains are complex and copyright is unclear, making it difficult for companies to safely access.
3. Lack of incentive mechanisms: Data contributors lack ownership protection and revenue distribution, leading to insufficient willingness to participate.

The chief technology officer of a certain tech giant once stated: "No amount of content on the internet can replicate the intuitive judgment people make when they pick up a coffee cup." The next generation of AI models not only needs to "see the world," but also to "understand and act in the world."

Poseidon: The Data Operating System Designed for AI

To address the aforementioned challenges, Poseidon provides a comprehensive operating system that covers the entire process of collection, annotation, licensing, circulation, tracing, and incentives, transforming data from "resources" into "assets" that truly possess legal validity and economic incentive mechanisms.

Poseidon President S.Y. Lee stated: "Relying on the programmable Data Layer and the immutable intellectual property registration system, we ensure that each dataset is licensed, traceable, and enforceable under intellectual property rights. Combined with our integrated licensing module, the team can seamlessly complete data authorization, monetization, and usage without worrying about legal risks. This is not just infrastructure development, but also empowering AI systems that can be truly deployed in the real world."

Poseidon's core capabilities include:

• Full-stack Data Pipeline: Supports standardized collection and cleaning of multi-source data
• On-chain intellectual property registration and traceability: ensuring clear data provenance and legal authorization.
• Incentive and Permission Module: Achieve revenue distribution through smart contracts to promote the sustainable growth of the data network.
• Composable Data Market: Developers can filter, call, and integrate data based on licenses, automatically triggering permissions and revenue sharing, reducing copyright risks.

Building the Data Economy Foundation in the AI Era

The founder and managing partner of a well-known venture capital firm stated: "AI foundational models have exhausted the most readily available training data. Poseidon's decentralized data layer is attempting to establish a new economic foundation for the internet, rewarding creators and data providers who offer diverse inputs for the next generation of intelligent systems. We are pleased to support Poseidon in addressing one of the most critical bottlenecks in AI development."

Poseidon has partnered with several leading AI companies and will use this round of financing to expand its technology stack, including SDK toolkits, data contributor workbenches, licensing and profit-sharing management modules. Early access channels will open this summer, with registration starting for AI developers and data contributors.

About Poseidon

Poseidon is a decentralized full-stack Data Layer specifically designed for AI training processes. The project aims to connect high-quality data supply with AI model demand. The platform supports the entire link process from data contribution, authorization, to verification and integration, ensuring that the data has security, compliance, and economic incentive mechanisms.