Sui Foundation has announced a USD 30 million investment in DATA Network as the AI training data protocol prepares to migrate to Sui on October 12, 2026. The agreement makes Sui Foundation the network's largest institutional holder and sets plans to retire DATA Network's independent blockchain.
The transition will bring Trace, DATA Foundation's onchain registry for AI training data, into Sui's infrastructure. Meanwhile, Walrus will become the default storage platform for applications operated by DATA Foundation.
The existing DATA token will migrate at a 1:1 ratio. Holders will retain equivalent or better governance rights and token economics. Locked tokens and vesting positions will also carry over unchanged.
Both organizations confirmed that the existing network will continue operating until the transition finishes. They have not announced a migration date but plan to publish detailed instructions and a schedule before the upgrade.
AI developers increasingly need data that people provide with consent and clear ownership rights. The open internet has supplied large training datasets, but future models require access to information that people and organizations control.
Such material includes healthcare accounts, dashcam recordings, industrial maintenance footage and customer service calls. These sources can contain personal or regulated information, making permission and traceability important for organizations that license data.
The EU AI Act and ongoing legal disputes over training data have added pressure on AI companies to document their data sources. This raises a central question: how can developers verify that training data comes from authorized sources?
DATA Foundation launched Trace in June to address this challenge. The registry records where contributions originate, tracks their associated rights and facilitates payments to contributors.
Since launch, Trace has registered more than 250 million contributions. It now processes an average of over three million receipts daily, according to the announcement.
Applications using Trace include Kled, which is onboarding more than 1.5 billion records as an opt-in human data marketplace. Numo and Oto also use the system and already license data to leading AI laboratories and robotics companies.
Sui represents assets as programmable objects, allowing developers to manage datasets and licenses onchain. Its parallel transaction processing and sub-second settlement support the high volume of registrations required by data-intensive applications.
Walrus will provide storage for large AI datasets. The platform also supports controls that restrict access to authorized buyers, according to the announcement.
Integrating Trace with Walrus will expand the registry's verification capabilities. Currently, a Trace record confirms that a file was registered and identifies when registration occurred.
After integration, Trace will be able to store an encrypted, immutable reference copy of each contributed file through Walrus. This will allow applications to regenerate a record's hash from the underlying data instead of relying solely on application-supplied metadata.
Furthermore, developers will be able to compare later versions or processing results against the original file. The integration aims to strengthen evidence of data origin and help users detect unauthorized changes.
Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder and chief product officer at Mysten Labs, said Sui and Walrus can support AI data storage, licensing and payments at scale. He added that the migration brings substantial volumes of rights-cleared data already serving leading AI laboratories.
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Sui Foundation's USD 30 million investment establishes its position as DATA Network's largest institutional holder. PIP Labs and DATA Foundation will continue holding stakes in the network.
As part of the partnership, SY Lee, chairman of Poseidon and CEO of PIP Labs, will join Sui Foundation as a strategic adviser. The appointment adds a leadership connection between the organizations as they develop the integrated data infrastructure.
DATA Network will operate as a protocol on Sui after the upgrade, ending its independent blockchain operations. The DATA token will remain the protocol's token and migrate at a one-to-one ratio.
Andrea Muttoni, CEO of DATA Foundation, said Trace has tracked hundreds of millions of data assets. He added that the integration could support encrypted reference storage and potentially verifiable trusted execution environments for AI evaluations and fine-tuning.
The organizations have yet to publish the migration schedule. Until then, the current DATA Network will continue operating, with further guidance for token holders expected before the transition.
Sui Foundation's USD 30 million investment will move DATA Network and Trace onto Sui while integrating Walrus storage. The transition will preserve the DATA token's one-to-one migration and existing holder protections. Token holders should await the official migration schedule and instructions before taking action.