Nous Research
Nous Research is an American artificial intelligence lab known for releasing open-weight language models with few content restrictions, and for developing methods to train AI models across the internet rather than in a single data center. It began in 2022 as a volunteer collective and was incorporated as a company in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan "Teknium" and Shivani Mitra.[1][2]
Hermes models
Nous is best known for its Hermes series of models. Hermes 4, released in August 2025, is "a family of hybrid reasoning models" whose weights "are published publicly".[3] The lab designs its models to be "unencumbered by censorship", answering nearly any request without the safety restrictions common in commercial models.[4] In 2026 it released Hermes Agent under the MIT License.
Decentralized training
Nous has developed DisTrO, a family of training optimizers that cut the communication needed between machines, making it possible to train models over ordinary internet connections. In 2025 it launched Psyche, a network for training models across distributed hardware, whose "coordination happens on the Solana blockchain, ensuring a fault-tolerant and censorship-resistant network".[5]
Funding
In April 2025, Nous raised $50 million in a round led by the crypto investment firm Paradigm.[2] In October 2026, it raised a $90 million Series B led by Robot Ventures at a $1.5 billion valuation, saying it wants "everyone to own their intelligence".[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Temkin, Marina (October 7, 2026). "Nous Research confirms it hit $1.5B valuation, launches AI agents for business users". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 13, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Schwartz, Leo (April 25, 2025). "Paradigm leads Nous Research funding". Fortune. Retrieved November 13, 2026.
- ↑ August 25, 2025. "Hermes 4 Technical Report". arXiv. Retrieved November 13, 2026.
- ↑ Nuñez, Michael (August 28, 2025). "Nous Research drops Hermes 4 AI models". VentureBeat. Retrieved November 13, 2026.
- ↑ May 14, 2025. "Nous Psyche". Nous Research. Retrieved November 13, 2026.