Nous Research, the artificial intelligence startup renowned for developing the open-source Hermes agent, has officially confirmed a $90 million Series B funding round that values the company at an impressive $1.5 billion. The massive capital injection validates earlier industry reporting and marks a significant milestone for the three-year-old enterprise, which has rapidly emerged as a dominant force in the global open-source AI ecosystem.
The high-stakes financing round was spearheaded by Robot Ventures, with participation from a high-profile roster of co-investors, including chipmaking giant Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital—a venture firm where Donald Trump Jr. serves as a partner. This latest influx of capital brings Nous Research’s total cumulative funding to $158 million since its inception, providing the startup with substantial financial runway as it scales its operations, expands its technical infrastructure, and targets new commercial markets.
The explosive growth of Nous Research is deeply rooted in the widespread adoption of its flagship open-source offering. The Hermes agent has captured the imagination of software developers, researchers, and individual tech enthusiasts across the globe, having been cloned more than 24 million times. According to internal estimates provided by the startup, the widespread integration and execution of Hermes account for roughly 2.5 percent of all global AI token usage. This staggering level of consumption highlights the developer community’s preference for flexible, open-source architectures over locked-in, proprietary alternatives provided by legacy tech conglomerates.
With the fresh capital secured from its Series B investors, Nous Research plans to pivot aggressively into the lucrative enterprise sector. The company is preparing to roll out a specialized commercial offering tentatively dubbed "Hermes for Businesses." This new enterprise-grade solution is designed to allow corporations and large organizations to deploy highly customized AI agents capable of autonomously executing complex, multi-step workflows. Crucially, the platform aims to address the primary concerns of corporate buyers by ensuring that internal business data remains strictly private, secure, and shielded from external exploitation.
The commercialization strategy appears to be gaining rapid traction well ahead of schedule. Financial disclosures highlighted in recent reports indicate that Nous Research achieved an annualized revenue run rate of approximately $36 million by mid-September 2026. Buoyed by surging demand for enterprise automation and customized open-source tooling, company leadership anticipates that annualized revenue will surpass the $100 million threshold before the end of 2026.
As the artificial intelligence landscape continues to mature, the rapid ascent of Nous Research underscores a broader industry shift toward open-source models that offer transparency, customization, and cost-efficiency. By bridging the gap between community-driven innovation and enterprise-grade security, the startup is positioning itself at the forefront of the next wave of workplace automation and agentic AI deployment.