Who Is Humayun Sheikh? The Fetch.ai CEO Behind the 1.48 Billion FET Merger Mint

Humayun Sheikh is the CEO of Fetch.ai and chairman of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, and his company minted 1,477,549,566 FET on 3 May 2024 to fold two other AI tokens into its own. The rate it fixed for Ocean Protocol's token also sizes the FET at the centre of a New York lawsuit.

The amended complaint alleges that the Ocean defendants converted 661,218,319 OCEAN into 286,456,967.46 FET after 1 July 2025, which is what Ocean's fixed rate pays out. Sheikh isn't a party to the case.

Who Is Humayun Sheikh?

Humayun Sheikh is the Fetch.ai CEO and ASI Alliance chairman, according to the Alliance's team page read at 13:26 UTC on 5 October 2026.

The same page says Humayun Sheikh was a founding investor in DeepMind, where he "supported the commercialization of early-stage AI and deep neural network technology".

His company's releases quote him in both roles, and our guide to what Fetch.ai is and how FET works covers the platform he runs.

Humayun Sheikh at a Glance

How Did Humayun Sheikh Build Fetch.ai and the ASI Alliance?

Step 1: Fetch.ai, 2017 to 2018

The amended complaint says the Fetch.ai Foundation, the Singapore entity, was founded in 2017. It also says Fetch provides "a decentralized AI agent architecture", the kind of software our explainer on what AI agents are in cryptowalks through.

Companies House shows the UK company FETCH.AI LIMITED incorporated on 13 February 2018 with Sheikh, Toby Simpson and Thomas Hain as directors from that day. That company entered administration on 23 January 2024 and took the name FAI Realisations 2024 Limited in February. A new company incorporated on 27 January 2024 with Sheikh as a director took the FETCH.AI LIMITED name in February. Fetch said in a statement of 31 January 2024 that only the UK entity was affected.

Step 2: The Merger Mint, May 2024

Fetch's merger announcement of 27 March 2024 fixed Ocean's rate at 0.433226 merged tokens per OCEAN and SingularityNET's at 0.433350 per AGIX. It said the rate "will not change" and set no deadline for swaps. It also named Sheikh chairman of the governing council it planned for the Alliance, with Ocean's Trent McConaghy and Bruce Pon among the members, and both men are defendants in the 2025 suit.

On 3 May 2024 the company minted 1,477,549,566 FET for the merger, with 866,700,367 of them backing AGIX and 610,849,199 backing OCEAN. Total supply rose to 2,630,547,141, or 2.28 times the 1,152,997,575 FET that existed before the mint.

Step 3: Phase I, 1 July 2024

The company's update of 21 June 2024 set Phase I to start on 1 July 2024, when AGIX and OCEAN began migrating into FET. The ticker stayed FET, with the switch to an ASI ticker left for "a later date".

Step 4: CUDOS In, Ocean Out

On 11 September 2024 the Alliance proposed adding CUDOS, a distributed cloud computing network, and set a community vote for 19 to 24 September. As a non-founding member, CUDOS accepted vesting of three to ten months on its merge transactions and a 5% fee.

Ocean left the Alliance on 9 October 2025, according to the amended complaint, and our explainer on what Ocean Protocol is covers the data network it runs. The March 2024 announcement had said members were "free to leave at all times".

The Alliance's about page read at 13:26 UTC on 5 October 2026 lists SingularityNET and CUDOS beside Sheikh's company and no longer names Ocean.

The Numbers Behind the ASI Merger

Method: the amended complaint of 17 March 2026 puts the OCEAN converted after 1 July 2025 at 661,218,319 and the FET received at 286,456,967.46. Multiply the first figure by Ocean's fixed rate of 0.433226 and you get 286,456,967.467, so the complaint's number is that product cut at two decimal places. The disputed FET equals 46.89% of the 610,849,199 FET minted for Ocean and 10.89% of the 2,630,547,141 total that the May 2024 mint set. The conversion figures are the plaintiffs' allegations, and the rate and the allocations come from the company's own posts. So the rate fixed in the March 2024 announcement that named Sheikh chairman is the yardstick for the whole dispute.

Why Humayun Sheikh's Story Matters Beyond AI Tokens

For founders: By the complaint's account, Ocean's tokens converted at the March 2024 rate more than a year after the vote, because the terms fixed the rate for good and set no deadline. CUDOS, which joined after the founding three, came in with vesting of up to ten months. Anyone building an alliance in decentralized AI, as our guide defines it, can read those two sets of terms side by side.

For investors: The lead plaintiff is Fetch Compute, Inc., a Delaware company that the complaint says gives AI researchers free access to GPUs. Fetch Compute is also the name of the $100 million GPU programme his company announced on 5 March 2024 with a quote from Sheikh, though the complaint never mentions him.

For traders: The complaint alleges that about 263 million FET were sold into the open market after 1 July 2025, roughly nine in ten of the converted tokens. It adds that the exact number is unclear because the tokens first went to wallets that cannot be traced.

What Traders Should Watch

The ruling: The Ocean defendants moved to dismiss on 30 April 2026, the plaintiffs opposed on 5 June and the defendants' reply followed on 26 June 2026. No ruling appears on the case's public docket index, read at 13:26 UTC on 5 October 2026.

The jurisdiction argument: The motion argues first that the New York court lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendants, and only in the alternative that the claims fail. A dismissal on that ground would not test the 286 million figure at all.

New members mean new FET: Each merger into FET has meant new FET, with 1,477,549,566 minted in May 2024 and a supply increase of 88,946,755.672 FET planned in the CUDOS proposal of 11 September 2024.

The ASI ticker: The 21 June 2024 update left the switch to an ASI ticker for "a later date". Phemex's product list read at 13:26 UTC on 5 October 2026 still carries the token as FET, under the name Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

How to Trade the Trends Humayun Sheikh Represents

Via crypto: Phemex's product list, read at 13:26 UTC on 5 October 2026, shows FET / USDT spot listed since 21 March 2022 and the FETUSDT perpetual delisted. Our look at Fetch.ai and the future of AI agents in crypto tradingcovers what the token powers.

Via TradFi perpetuals: The March 2024 Fetch Compute announcement said the programme would deploy Nvidia's H200, H100 and A100 GPUs. If you want that compute theme without a token, the product list read at 13:26 UTC also holds NVDA / USDT, a perpetual on Nvidia stock.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Humayun Sheikh the founder of Fetch.ai or only its CEO?

Fetch's merger announcement says the company was "founded by DeepMind veteran and founding investor Humayun Sheikh", and the Alliance's team page lists him as its CEO.

Is Humayun Sheikh named anywhere in the Ocean Protocol lawsuit?

Neither the original complaint of 4 November 2025 nor the amended complaint mentions him. The defendants are three Ocean co-founders and three Ocean entities.

How many AGIX and OCEAN tokens was the May 2024 mint sized for?

Dividing each allocation by its rate gives about 2.0 billion AGIX and 1.41 billion OCEAN, the token counts the 1,477,549,566 FET mint was built to absorb.

What did Fetch Compute offer FET stakers in March 2024?

From 7 March 2024, users staking FET were to earn Fetch Compute Credits to spend on GPU time, according to the company's announcement of 5 March 2024.

What can traders learn from Humayun Sheikh and the ASI merger?

Read a merger's swap terms as a standing option. The March 2024 terms let holders swap "10 years from now", so FET can reach the market long after a deal closes.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.