Chi Zhang, Kite AI Co-Founder & CEO on Building Agentic Internet

Chi Zhang is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kite AI, a purpose-built decentralized infrastructure platform creating programmable trust, identity, and payment rails for AI agents. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kite AI is building the foundational Layer-1 infrastructure for the Agentic Internet, enabling autonomous AI agents to securely transact, collaborate, and exchange value through innovations like Proof of AI, cryptographic agent identity, and machine-native payment systems. The company has raised over $33 million from investors including PayPal Ventures, General Catalyst, Coinbase Ventures, and SBI Group. Prior to Kite AI, Chi co-founded ZettaBlock, led data engineering product development at Databricks, and was a founding AI leader at dotData. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics specializing in Machine Learning and AI and an M.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, she also mentors founders through StartX.TopicsWhy AI Agents Need Their Own Identity, Payment, and Trust Infrastructure to Power the Agentic InternetBuilding the Foundational Layer for Machine-to-Machine Commerce and Autonomous AI EconomiesLessons From Scaling AI Products at Databricks to Building a Layer-1 Blockchain for the Next Generation of AI Applications#ArtificialIntelligence #AgenticAI #Blockchain #Web3 #Startups