Nous Research Has Raised $90 Million for Hermes AI

The startup achieved a $1.5 billion valuation to develop a business-focused version of its popular AI agent.

Updated on Oct. 7, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence

Isometric editorial illustration of a modular block array, representing the scaling of digital enterprise infrastructure. — Nous Research secured $90 million in a new funding round, valuing the artificial intelligence startup at $1.5 billion. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Nous Research secured $90 million in a new funding round that brings the company's valuation to $1.5 billion. The startup will use the capital to expand its Hermes AI agent into a dedicated enterprise version for businesses.

Why it matters

The funding supports the transition of Hermes from a widespread open-source tool into a commercial enterprise platform. This allows the company to offer specialized model choices tailored to specific corporate goals and pricing structures.

The Hermes AI agent, launched in February 2026, has been cloned 24 million times and currently accounts for approximately 2.5% of global token usage. The agent is compatible with macOS, Windows, Linux, Telegram, Slack, and WhatsApp.

The players

Nous Research

An artificial intelligence company that specializes in fine-tuning open models and developing AI agents.

Nvidia

A leading technology company that provides the hardware infrastructure and investment necessary for AI development.

Union Square Ventures

A venture capital firm focused on investing in disruptive technology companies and early-stage software platforms.

Menlo Ventures

A venture capital firm that supports startups in the artificial intelligence and enterprise software sectors.

Y Combinator

A prominent startup accelerator and investment firm that supports early-stage companies across various technology fields.

The details

Nous Research builds its agents by fine-tuning Llama models to strictly follow user preferences. The company also developed YaRN, a technology used to provide longer context windows for open-source AI models.

Nous Research was formed in 2023.
The Hermes AI agent was released in February 2026.
The $90 million funding round was reported on October 7, 2026.

The Tech Race

The firm's reliance on fine-tuning open-source Llama models mirrors a broader shift in the AI industry toward optimizing existing foundational models rather than solely building new ones from scratch. This strategy positions Nous Research to compete against proprietary providers by offering more flexible, customizable deployment options.

Business users will eventually gain access to more tailored AI agents that balance cost against specific performance goals. Individual developers and casual users may see improved reliability and feature sets in the open-source versions as the company iterates on its enterprise platform.

The takeaway

This funding underscores the growing market value of AI agents that can be integrated across multiple operating systems and messaging platforms. Businesses looking to leverage AI should track the emerging trend of model-agnostic tools that allow for custom fine-tuning based on specific operational needs.