Private.Intelligent.Yours.
NEARCON 2026 is the convergence point for the most important innovations across the AI economy. It is where cutting-edge cryptographic research, financial infrastructure, and AI computing come together to lay the foundation for a new era of commerce that is autonomous, privacy-preserving, verifiable, and built for both global enterprises and end users.
For two full days in the epicenter of AI innovation, NEARCON brings together institutional leaders, hardware titans, academic researchers, and open-source builders to give attendees premier access to the ground floor of the fast-emerging AI economy.
Why San Francisco
San Francisco has always lived on the frontier. The Gold Rush made it a magnet for builders and dreamers. Silicon Valley transformed it into the birthplace of computing, the internet, and crypto. Again and again, the Bay Area has been where the future is prototyped, scaled, and exported to the world.
While some declared the city finished, a new energy has taken root. AI labs hum late into the night. Cryptographers debate in lofts. Founders gather in shared studios refining agents, models, and protocols. San Francisco is alive again, revived by the rise of artificial intelligence and reimagined by a generation that believes the next wave of technology must be open and user-owned.
This is why NEARCON is coming to San Francisco.
Rome built monuments. San Francisco builds networks. Rome raised walls. San Francisco opens worlds. NEAR carries forward the same principle. The future of AI cannot be controlled by closed platforms or fragile monopolies. It must be open, decentralized, and owned by everyone.
What You’ll Experience at NEARCON 2026
This year’s theme, Private. Intelligent. Yours., speaks to a moment of profound choice.
Will the AI economy be autonomous, privacy-preserving, and built for users?
Or centralized, extractive, and opaque?
NEARCON 2026 is a declaration that the next era of AI will be user-owned, verifiable, and onchain. Across two days of high-signal programming, we will explore how privacy, interoperability, and decentralized compute form the backbone of an AI economy built without compromise.
Expect:
- Visionary keynotes from leaders across AI, cryptography, hardware, and finance
- Live demos of agent-based systems, confidential compute, and cross-chain intent execution
- Deep dives into private inference, verifiable AI, and the primitives powering agentic commerce
- Debates on regulation, adoption, and the trillion-dollar opportunities emerging from open AI ecosystems
- A curated set of partner activations and a dedicated Product-Market Fit Lounge for founders
- Workshops and builder tracks focused on NEAR’s intents ecosystem, chain abstraction, and open-source agent frameworks
Want to help shape the conversation?
Apply to be a NEARCON 2026 speaker and bring your research, product, or perspective to the stage.
Secure Your Spot
Join us February 23 to 24, 2026, at Fort Mason on the San Francisco waterfront. Attendance is curated and capped to maintain a high-signal environment.
Applications to attend are now open.
If your team wants deeper visibility or activation opportunities, explore partnership options through our Sponsorship Interest Form.
Stay tuned to the @NEARProtocol X account and near.org/blog for speaker announcements, programming updates, and more.
Welcome to the Age of Agentic Commerce
NEARCON is more than a conference. It is an organizing moment for a new kind of technological movement. One that brings cryptographic trust and intelligent systems together to create an AI economy that is open, safe, and accessible.
Private AI, decentralized compute, agent interoperability, and chain abstraction are not just technical innovations. They represent values and answer the most important questions of our time.
Who owns intelligence?
Who controls computation?
Who benefits from the next economy?
Choosing San Francisco is not about convenience. It is a statement. We are placing NEARCON at the heart of the global AI renaissance and declaring that the next technological revolution should belong to everyone, not just the platforms that operate it.
This is why San Francisco.
This is why NEARCON.
Come build what comes next.
