October 7, 2026 — Funding
Nous Research just raised $90 million at a $1.5 billion valuation to take its viral open-source AI assistant, Hermes, to corporate customers. The Series B was led by Robot Ventures, with Nvidia, Microsoft’s M12 venture arm, Samsung, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and 1789 Capital — the venture firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner — all participating.
Why it matters: A developer tool that racked up 22.7 million downloads since February is now being positioned as the enterprise answer to closed AI assistants like Meta’s Muse. Open weights, your servers, your rules — that’s the pitch, and investors just put $90 million behind it.
What happened
Nous Research, founded in 2023, confirmed a $90 million Series B round valuing the company at $1.5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Total funding now stands at about $158 million. The company had been in talks for the round earlier this year at the same valuation — this time the money is in the bank.
Why investors are betting on Hermes
Hermes is an open-source AI agent framework that went viral among software developers this year. It combines persistent memory, reusable “skills” for tasks like web search and coding, and a learning loop that lets the agent create and refine its own procedures. According to usage data from OpenRouter, Hermes has already overtaken OpenClaw — the open-source AI assistant that was a phenomenon among developers earlier this year — in real-world usage.
Robot Ventures, the lead investor, is joined by a striking roster: Nvidia and Samsung on the chip side, Microsoft’s M12 and Union Square Ventures on the enterprise software side. M12 managing partner Peter Lenke told the Journal the firm first noticed Nous by watching the OpenRouter charts, calling the viral adoption “a great indication of its value and utility.”
Why it matters for businesses
Nous is betting that companies want AI assistants they can actually own. As CEO Dillon Rolnick put it: “I think that businesses should have a level of ownership over their own destinies.” The argument: closed assistants from the big labs come with data-handling and vendor-lock-in trade-offs that make legal and compliance teams nervous. An open-source agent you can inspect, download, modify, and run on your own infrastructure sidesteps that objection entirely.
There’s also a safety argument baked in. Rolnick says an open-source product whose code anyone can inspect is “the best way to ensure safety” — a direct counter to the closed-lab position that the most capable agents need tight centralized control.
For anyone evaluating AI assistants for real work: Hermes matters because it’s the rare AI agent with production-grade buzz and an actual business model attached. Whether enterprises adopt an open-source agent at scale will be the test the next twelve months answer.
FAQ
What is Nous Research?
A startup founded in 2023 building open-source AI agents. Its flagship product, Hermes, is a self-improving AI agent framework with persistent memory and reusable skills.
How much has Nous Research raised?
About $158 million in total, including the new $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation.
What makes Hermes different from ChatGPT or Meta’s Muse?
Hermes is open source — you can download, inspect, modify, and self-host it. Most big-name AI assistants are closed services where your data lives on someone else’s servers.
Who invested in the round?
Robot Ventures led, with Nvidia, Microsoft’s M12, Samsung, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and 1789 Capital participating.
Sources: Wall Street Journal (Pro / Venture Capital), OpenRouter usage data via WSJ, prior coverage from Hypebeast and InforCapital.