Google and Meta have made bets on AI infrastructure this year, and their moves are reshaping not only tech but also the crypto market.
AI-focused tokens such as Bittensor, Near Protocol, and Internet Computer rallied sharply on the news.

At the recent Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit, Alphabet’s CFO Ruth Porat revealed that Google is investing over $25 billion into building out data centers and AI infrastructure across the PJM grid, a massive power network serving 13 U.S. states.

Backing this move is a separate $3 billion deal to modernize two hydropower plants in Pennsylvania, marking the largest clean energy agreement ever linked to AI demand. It’s a major step toward aligning sustainability with the explosive growth of computing power.

Mark Zuckerberg made a similar announcement: Meta is pouring “hundreds of billions of dollars” into creating AI superclusters, including Prometheus, set to launch in 2026, and Hyperion, a planned 5-gigawatt cluster so large it could rival the footprint of Manhattan.

These moves by Big Tech signal an all-in bet on AI, but they also highlight the growing limitations of centralized infrastructure. That’s where AI tokens and decentralized networks come into play.

AI Tokens in Focus

Bittensor (TAO) is a decentralized machine learning network where developers are rewarded in TAO tokens for contributing valuable AI models, much like mining, but with intelligence instead of hardware. Right now, TAO’s market cap is sitting around $4.1 billion, down just 1.9% in the past 24 hours. But zoom out a bit, and it’s been on a tear, up 21% this past week, currently trading at $429.78.

If the price manages to close above the key $440 resistance level, it could open the door for more gains, possibly pushing toward $458, which lines up with the 50% Fibonacci retracement. Over the past month, TAO has climbed an impressive 19% and by 32% in the past year.

Over the past week, ICP has surged 7.21%, with a modest 0.65% gain today, currently trading around $5.62. With a total supply of 535 million tokens and a market cap of around $3.16 billion, ICP is slowly regaining attention, especially as interest in AI-powered blockchains heats up.

One crypto enthusiast summed up the sentiment perfectly: “Almost everyone will hear about ICP when it’s at $50. Bookmark this.”

NEAR Protocol (NEAR ) is also carving out a unique space in Web3 as a developer-friendly, layer-1 blockchain focused on usability, scalability, and cross-chain interoperability. Rather than competing with other blockchains, NEAR is working to connect them through its Blockchain Operating System (BOS), allowing users and developers to interact with multiple chains through a unified interface.

In a notable development, Crypto News Flash reported that Bitwise Asset Management launched a NEAR Staking ETP on Germany’s Deutsche Börse Xetra exchange.

This product provides institutional investors with exposure to NEAR, offering annual staking rewards of up to 5.5% after fees, which signals growing interest in NEAR’s long-term potential and its role in the evolving crypto and AI infrastructure space.

Recently, NEAR has shown strong market performance, up 2.27% in the past 24 hours and 15% over the last week, now trading around $2.74. If it continues to hold above its 100-day EMA (approximately $2.55), there’s potential for a move toward the $3 mark.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ July 17, 2025 12:18 pm