Nous Research

What Nous Research does

Nous Research is an American open-source AI company founded in 2023 and based in New York that trains world-class open-source language models and builds decentralized AI infrastructure. Its core technology stack comprises the Hermes model family (Hermes 3 at 8B/70B/405B parameters and Hermes 4.3 at 36B with 512K context), the Hermes Agent autonomous agent framework with persistent memory and closed-loop self-improvement, the Psyche decentralized training network (coordinated via Solana blockchain and built on the proprietary DisTrO optimizer), and NousCoder-14B for competitive programming. Research contributions include Token Superposition Training (2.5x pretraining speedup), Lighthouse Attention (1.4-1.7x speedup at long context), and Contrastive Neuron Attribution for behavior steering.

The company distributes its models under the MIT license through GitHub and HuggingFace, monetizing via FlyHermes managed cloud at $59/month, Nous Portal API access with a paid Tool Gateway tier, and Surf (a crypto analytics platform with its own $15M funding round). It serves developers, AI researchers, enterprise teams seeking self-hostable agents, and crypto/blockchain companies, with ecosystem integrations spanning Microsoft MXC, NVIDIA RTX Spark, Stripe Projects, Anthropic Claude, and xAI Grok. The company raised a $50M Series A led by Paradigm at a $1B valuation in April 2025, bringing cumulative funding to approximately $85M.

Its go-to-market is product-led and community-led, with 100,000+ GitHub stars, 295 contributors in peak release weeks, and Hermes Agent ranking #1 on OpenRouter with 224B daily tokens. Operating geographies are global with no geographic restrictions, and the company employs 11-50 people, suggesting exceptional technical productivity per employee but also limited commercial scale relative to its research output and valuation.

Name

Nous Research

Legal name

Nous Research

Website

https://nousresearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Nous Research is a New York-based open-source AI research company (founded 2023) that develops the Hermes language models, the Hermes Agent autonomous framework, and the Psyche decentralized training network, serving developers, enterprises, and crypto firms via MIT-licensed distribution.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open-Source AI Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (51321), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Foundation Model Developers (LLM/Multimodal Model Labs) (HDAAACAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open-Source Model Ecosystems & Model Marketplaces (HDAAACAM), Model Hosting, Serving & Inference Platforms (HDAAACAB), On-Device/Edge Foundation Models (Mobile/Embedded LLMs) (HDAAACAN)

Keywords

• Open-source AI models
• Autonomous AI agents
• Decentralized training
• Language model development
• AI infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. FlyHermes Managed Service: Commercial managed offering for Hermes Agent at $59/month, providing fully managed cloud deployment with convenience and support.
2. Nous Portal API Access: Paid API access to Hermes models and tools including Tool Gateway for automated tasks without additional credentials for paid users.
3. Open Source Distribution: Core models and frameworks released under MIT license for free download and self-hosting, with revenue generated through optional premium services and compute partnerships.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Nous Research develops and distributes open-source large language models (Hermes 3, Hermes 4.3), autonomous AI agents (Hermes Agent), and decentralized AI training infrastructure (Psyche Network). The company releases its core models and frameworks under MIT license for free self-hosting, while generating commercial revenue through managed cloud services (FlyHermes at $59/month), API access (Nous Portal), and enterprise offerings.

Product overview

Nous Research is an American open-source AI company that trains world-class open-source language models and builds decentralized AI infrastructure. The core product portfolio includes Hermes Agent (an autonomous self-improving AI agent framework), the Hermes language model series (Hermes 3 and Hermes 4.3), NousCoder-14B (a competitive programming model), Psyche Network (decentralized training infrastructure), and Atropos (distributed RL coordination system). Supporting products include Forge Reasoning API, Nous Chat, FlyHermes managed cloud, Nous Portal, Surf (crypto analytics), and Simulators. The company raised $50M from Paradigm (April 2025) and $15M for Surf from Pantera Capital (December 2025).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Hermes Agent: Open-source self-improving AI agent framework released February 2026 under MIT license, featuring persistent memory and autonomous skill generation
• Hermes 4
• Psyche
• NousCoder-14B
• Nous Portal
• Simulators
• Forge Reasoning API
• Atropos
• Lighthouse Attention
• Contrastive Neuron Attribution (CNA)
• Token Superposition Training

Quantifiable outcome

• 2.5x wall-clock pretraining speedup with Token Superposition Training
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability11 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• FlashLabsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 June 2026Tokyo-based company launched Hermes Agent for B2B sales platform FlashRev, expanding Hermes into multi-step workflow automation and remote computer access.
• Solana FoundationcoreTechnology or Integration · 14 May 2025Psyche network uses Solana blockchain for coordination, providing fault-tolerant and censorship-resistant network for decentralized AI training. Smart contracts on Solana manage consensus state for training runs.
• Lambda LabscoreTechnology or Integration · 1 November 2024Compute partner for Forge Reasoning API Beta testing phase, providing GPU infrastructure for Nous Research's inference-time AI research.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Mistral AI: European open-weight foundation model developer offering competitive LLMs (Mistral, Mixtral) under permissive licenses. Direct comparable to Nous Research on open-source foundation model strategy, though Mistral operates a much larger commercial API business.
• DeepSeek: Chinese AI lab that has released strong open-source LLMs (DeepSeek-V3, R1) with cost-efficient training methodologies. Highly comparable to Nous on open-source model distribution and training efficiency breakthroughs, competing for the same developer mindshare.
• Hugging Face: Open-source AI platform hosting model weights (including Nous Research's models), serving as Nous' primary distribution channel. Competes for developer mindshare in the open-source AI community and increasingly develops its own models and inference offerings.
• Stability AI: Open-source generative AI company best known for Stable Diffusion. Highly comparable to Nous on open-source-first strategy, decentralized ethos, and developer-led distribution, though Stability focuses more on image/multimodal generation.

Broad incumbents

• Meta AI (LLaMA): Released the Llama family of open-source foundation models that Nous fine-tunes (Hermes 3 is built on Llama 3.1). Sets the baseline capability and licensing terms that Nous' derivatives compete against, and is the most important upstream dependency in the ecosystem.
• OpenAI: Frontier closed-source foundation model developer behind GPT-4/5. While not a direct open-source competitor, OpenAI sets the capability frontier that Nous' open models benchmark against, and Hermes MoA ensembles its models as part of Nous' product offering.
• Anthropic: Frontier closed-source AI lab behind Claude. Establishes the safety-aligned frontier against which Nous' "uncensored" positioning is differentiated, and Nous' Tool Search for MCP was validated on Claude Opus 4 / 4.5 as an integration showcase.
• Cohere: Enterprise-focused foundation model provider offering both open and proprietary models with emphasis on retrieval and agent capabilities. Overlaps with Nous on the enterprise agent and custom-model positioning but operates a larger commercial footprint.

Emerging players

• Together AI: Open-source AI cloud platform providing GPU clusters, inference APIs, and fine-tuning on top of open models. Comparable to Nous on serving open-source LLMs commercially and operating training infrastructure, but operates a centralized rather than decentralized stack.
• xAI: Elon Musk's AI lab behind Grok models. Comparable frontier-model competitor in some benchmarks and an integration partner of Hermes Agent via OAuth. Represents both a competitor and a channel partner depending on positioning.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/nousresearch
• GitHubgithub.com/NousResearch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nousresearch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors7 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Nous Research