- NEAR surged more than 9% as bulls rode the latest artificial intelligence-related sentiment.
- The Nvidia and OpenAI partnership and $100 billion investment are a huge boost to ecosystem confidence.
- Short term, NEAR price could target a 200% rally to above $8.20
NEAR Protocol price has jumped 9% in the past 24 hours as artificial intelligence-related developments buoy investor sentiment.
As tokens such as AI Companions exploded, NEAR’s price climbed by more than 9% to highs of $3.15.
The surge reflected a sharp bounce from its intraday lows, with heightened enthusiasm amid AI-centric optimism. Gains see NEAR price buck the trend that had the crypto market reeling from a $1.7 billion wipe out amid sharp losses.
Near Protocol price bounces amid major AI news
The NEAR Protocol token experienced a robust 9% surge on September 23, 2025, rebounding from recent volatility and trading at $3.15 by midday, according to data from major exchanges.
NEAR’s price uptick follows a period of consolidation, with the token dipping below $2.90 earlier in the week amid broader crypto market pressure.
Also notable is the spike in trading volume, which was up by more than 25% to $370 million as investor confidence in NEAR rose.
At the heart of this momentum is NEAR’s strategic positioning as “the blockchain for AI,” a narrative reinforced by recent ecosystem advancements.
Just days prior, on September 16, NEAR announced a pivotal integration with the Allora Network, enhancing its Shade Agent infrastructure with predictive AI capabilities.
This collaboration introduces four AI engineering competitions focused on price prediction challenges across major blockchains, including NEAR, Solana, Bitcoin, and Ethereum.
By enabling autonomous bots to interact seamlessly with multiple chains while preserving data privacy, Shade Agents exemplify NEAR’s vision of serving as the “execution layer for the AI economy.”
These developments have propelled the combined market capitalization of AI-related tokens to over $34 billion.
Developers and capital are reflowing into top AI-related projects and NEAR’s scalable, sharded architecture gives it an upper hand.
Nvidia’s $100 billion bet on OpenAI
Compounding this excitement is the seismic announcement from industry giants OpenAI and Nvidia on September 22, 2025, which has sent ripples through the AI and crypto sectors.
Nvidia revealed plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers powered by millions of its GPUs, marking what executives described as the “biggest AI infrastructure deployment in history.”
The first gigawatt is slated for rollout in late 2026 using Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform, with the partnership aiming to accelerate OpenAI’s pursuit of superintelligent systems.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlighted its role in scaling compute for agentic AI and multimodal applications.
Notably, OpenAI and NVIDIA’s landmark collaboration not only boosted Nvidia’s stock by nearly 4%, adding $170 billion to its market cap, but also amplified the AI supercycle.
NEAR, riding the sentiment, is up 9% in the past 24 hours and now stands over 16% in the past week.
Near price forecast
With AI momentum ticking even higher, analysts project a bullish trajectory for crypto tokens within the ecosystem. Projects like Worldcoin, Bittensor and Render are recording significant network growth, and among these stands NEAR Protocol.
Past bullish flips have seen most tokens at the intersection of AI and blockchain technology bursting into life.
In 2025 and beyond, Near Protocol claims to be one of the top platforms. Fueled by its AI integrations, developer adoption, and macroeconomic tailwinds like the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut, price has hovered at key levels.
Short-term, network growth metrics and technical strength are key. The daily chart above suggests NEAR could successfully retest resistance at $3.50 and target highs of $4.00 and then $8.20 for a 200% rally.
On the downside, support is likely around $2.30 and $1.89.
