Nous Research, the open-source AI lab known for its Hermes models, has raised $90m in a Series B round. Nvidia, Microsoft's venture fund M12, Samsung, Robot Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator and Menlo Ventures were among the backers named in the company's announcement on 7 October 2026.
Robot Ventures led the round at a $1.5bn valuation, according to law firm Sidley Austin, which advised Nous on the financing. The Wall Street Journal first reported the $1.5bn figure; Nous did not state a valuation in its own post, Dealroom noted.
The round takes total funding to about $158m, according to Dealroom, following a $50m Series A led by Paradigm in April 2025.
“We're building for everyone to own their intelligence, and we're doing it in the open.”Dillon Rolnick, CEO, Nous Research
What Nous Research does
Founded in 2023, Nous started out fine-tuning Meta's Llama models with an emphasis on alignment with the user rather than with the model maker. It also published YaRN, a method for extending the context window of open models, and worked on synthetic data and open-source tool calling.
In February 2026 it released Hermes Agent under the MIT licence. That permissive licence lets anyone use, change and redistribute the code, including for commercial purposes. The agent can run wherever users choose and with whichever models they select. Nous says Hermes has been cloned more than 24 million times and, by its own internal estimates, accounts for about 2.5% of global token usage. The Wall Street Journal put downloads at 22.7 million, according to Dealroom.
What the money is for
The funds will go to Hermes for Businesses, an enterprise product that Nous says will let organisations control their own AI stack and costs, choose models on price and performance, keep their use of AI private and hold on to their institutional knowledge as deployments grow.
Nous frames the product as an open alternative to centralised AI systems. Chief executive Dillon Rolnick wrote that one principle has guided the company since its first Hermes release: the people who use an AI system should be the ones who control it.
Revenue and backers
Nous had annualised revenue of about $36m by mid-September 2026 and expects to pass $100m before the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported, as cited by Dealroom. The company has not published revenue figures itself.
The round combines chip and electronics companies with venture firms. Nvidia and Samsung invested alongside M12, while Robot Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator and Menlo Ventures took part from the venture side. Nous said other, unnamed investors also joined.
Pulse 2.0 reported that Hermes for Businesses is meant to let organisations scale AI deployments privately rather than depend on a single closed provider for models and infrastructure. Sidley Austin partners Lilya Tessler and Graeme Waller advised Nous on the financing.
The company did not say how many people it employs or where it is headquartered.
Company website: nousresearch.com