AI & Machine Learning

NEARCON 2026

This edition has ended

NEARCON 2026 ran Feb 23–24, 2026 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, United States. It is an AI & Machine Learning conference. ConferenceGrid lists 21 speakers, 2 sponsors and 10 sessions. Dates for the next edition are not announced yet.

Lineup updated Jul 7, 2026 · dates verified May 6, 2026

NEARCON is where intelligence, privacy, and the open web converge. An invite-only gathering shaping an AI economy built on trust, transparency, and user ownership. Join founders, researchers, and builders redefining how intelligent systems run - private, open, and on your terms. The event features visionary keynotes, hands-on workshops, and debates on AI eth…

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21Speakers
2Sponsors
10Sessions
21Companies · in total

Speakers

Programmed at NEARCON, in alphabetical order.

Alex Shevchenko
GM · NEAR Intents
Arjun Sethi
Co-CEO · Kraken
Avichal Garg
Co-Founder and Partner · Electric Capital
Cameron Dennis
Director of AI, Growth & Infra · NEAR AI
Chris Briseno
Chief Marketing Officer · NEAR Foundation
Danny Carpentier Balough
Director, Product Marketing and GTM Strategy · NEAR Foundation
Declan Hannon
CEO · Aurora
Greg Osuri
Founder and CEO · Akash
Haseeb Qureshi
Managing Partner · Dragonfly
Illia Polosukhin
Co-Founder · NEAR Protocol
Jerry Ma
VP Global Affairs & Deputy CTO · Perplexity
Jessica Scrimale
Vice President, Product Strategy, AI · Oracle
Kinga Bosse
Chief Operating Officer · MPCH
Lukasz Kaiser
Researcher · OpenAI
Matt White
Global CTO AI, Linux Foundation; CTO, Agentic AI Foundation; CTO, PyTorch · Linux Foundation
Michael Kelly
Director of BuilderOps · NEAR Foundation
Nalin Mittal
Product Lead, Web3 · Google
Noëlle Becker Moreno
CMO Edge & Node, Co-Founder of The House · Edge & Node
Petr Volnov
CEO · HOT Labs
Stephany Zoo
Head of Ecosystem · Caladan
Swaroon Sridhar
Product Manager · Robinhood

Sponsors

The companies behind the program. Tiers as disclosed.

Tech Sponsor Agold
Tech Sponsor Bsilver

Agenda

Selected from 10 sessions.

  • 10:55 AM - 11:00 AM

    Welcome Remarks

  • 11:00 AM - 11:20 AM

    The Unified Commerce Layer for the Agentic Era

    AI agents are quickly becoming economic actors, with personal assistant frameworks taking actions and transacting on behalf of people and businesses. Illia explains how NEAR AI and…

  • 11:20 AM - 11:50 AM

    Autonomous Systems In Practice

    How real autonomous systems are assembled, evaluated, and constrained in practice, beyond demos and single-model abstractions.

  • 11:50 AM - 12:00 PM

    Scaling Intelligence and Generalization

    Why generalization, not raw scale, determines whether modern AI systems become usable, reliable intelligence in the real world.

  • 11:55 AM - 12:00 PM

    Welcome Remarks

  • 12:00 PM - 12:10 PM

    Intents Widget – The Multichain Gateway for Builders

    NEAR Intents is already powering cross-chain swaps and unified liquidity for onchain markets and tokenized assets. The Intents Widget, built by Aurora, turns that power into a simp…

  • 12:00 PM - 12:20 PM

    Before Agents Control Capital: Security, Risk, and Autonomy

    What must be true before autonomous agents are trusted to control real capital, from security and custody to incentives and risk.

  • 12:10 PM - 12:20 PM

    HOT + NEAR = Chain Abstracted Crypto

    HOT Labs demonstrates how NEAR Intents enables chain-abstracted products that work seamlessly across networks. The session focuses on what is live today and how builders can replic…

  • 12:20 PM - 12:30 PM

    AI Is Hitting a Wall: The Underlying Infrastructure Is Why!

    The biggest bottleneck in AI isn’t talent, but the centralized control of compute access and cost. Discover how decentralized networks can break the grip of cloud monopolies and un…

Quick answers

When is NEARCON 2026?
NEARCON 2026 ran Feb 23–24, 2026 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, United States.
Where is NEARCON 2026 held?
NEARCON 2026 was held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, United States.
Who is speaking at NEARCON 2026?
ConferenceGrid lists 21 speakers, including Alex Shevchenko (GM, NEAR Intents), Arjun Sethi (Co-CEO, Kraken) and Avichal Garg (Co-Founder and Partner, Electric Capital).
Who sponsors NEARCON 2026?
ConferenceGrid lists 2 sponsors: Tech Sponsor A and Tech Sponsor B.
Company intelligence

An audience of 21 companies, parsed from the program.

21 companies in attendance.

The numbers below are derived from the speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors on this page, cross-referenced into one ledger. They are the only thing here that 10times.com cannot tell you.

Who's in the room
0All threespeak · spons · exh
2Sponsoringsponsor only
19Speakingspeaker only
Speakers by seniority

81% of the speakers carry senior titles: C-suite, Founder, VP, or Director-level.

  • C-suite943%
  • Founder / Owner314%
  • VP-level15%
  • Director / Head of419%
  • Product210%
  • Research / Science15%
  • Other roles15%

Of 21 speakers · classified by free-text title

Most-represented companies
#CompanyRolesSpeakers
1NEAR Foundation3
2Tech Sponsor ASponsor · gold-
3Tech Sponsor BSponsor · silver-
4Akash1
5Aurora1
6Caladan1
7Dragonfly1
8Edge & Node1
9Electric Capital1
10Google1
11HOT Labs1
12Kraken1
13Linux Foundation1
14MPCH1
Sponsors by tier
gold1
50% of 2
silver1
50% of 2