Tether Pushes Into Artificial Intelligence as User Base Tops 650M

Tether is expanding into artificial intelligence as it looks to build on a global user base of more than 650 million. CEO Paolo Ardoino says the company increasingly sees itself as a digital dollar and infrastructure business rather than a conventional crypto firm.

Tether is moving deeper into artificial intelligence, aiming to bring lightweight AI tools to users in developing markets where its stablecoins already have significant reach.

Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino said the company wants to build practical applications across areas such as health, finance and sports. The focus will not be on frontier AI models. Instead, Tether plans to create services that can run on ordinary smartphones and reach users who may have limited access to advanced digital infrastructure.

That scale is shaping how Tether defines itself.

“It’s been a while since we’ve considered ourselves crypto. I think that we are both a digital dollar company and a digital gold company,” Ardoino shared in the interview.

Ardoino has not yet detailed how the AI services will be monetized. One possible model would involve users paying small recurring fees through digital currencies to access applications. The expansion into AI is being framed around access, with Ardoino warning that unequal access to AI could deepen existing economic divisions.

Tether’s push into new businesses comes as it seeks to put long-running questions about its reserves behind it.

The audit gives the company more room to focus on its next phase. With hundreds of millions of users already relying on its digital dollars, Tether is betting that the same network can become a distribution channel for AI and other infrastructure well beyond crypto.