Nous Research, the startup behind the widely-used open-source Hermes Agent model, has raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation, confirming earlier reports. The round was led by Robot Ventures with participation from Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung and 1789 Capital.
The Hermes Agent model has been cloned more than 24 million times and drives roughly 2.5 percent of global AI token usage, according to the company. Popular with developers and individual users alike, it has become one of the most-deployed open-source AI agents in production environments worldwide.
The new capital will fund Nous Research's enterprise push with Hermes for Businesses, enabling companies to deploy customized AI agents that handle multi-step workflows while keeping data on their own infrastructure. The move marks a strategic shift from the company's developer-community roots toward enterprise revenue, as businesses seek AI agents they can control, customize and audit internally.
Nous Research was generating roughly $36 million in annualized revenue by mid-September 2026 and expects to surpass $100 million before year-end, according to The Wall Street Journal. The valuation places it among the highest-valued open-source AI companies globally, demonstrating that the open-weight model can sustain a venture-scale business and compete with well-funded proprietary competitors.
