Nous Research

Headlines · 5

1. Oct 11
   Nous Research raises $90M at $1.5B valuation for its Hermes AI agent

   Nous Research, the company behind the open-source Hermes agent framework, has raised $90 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in a round led by Robot Ventures, with investors including Nvidia, Microsoft's M12, Samsung and Y Combinator, according to a Cyzone report; cumulative funding now stands at $158 million. Nous says Hermes, released under the MIT license, has been cloned more than 24 million times, and it estimates that roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage comes from Hermes-related applications. Tencent's Lightweight Cloud team built LightVela on the Hermes agent with WeChat access, and Xiaomi's MiMo was an important model source for Hermes on OpenRouter; Nous reported about $36 million in annualized revenue as of mid-September 2026 and expects to top $100 million by year-end.

   创业邦 科技 · 🔥 0
2. Oct 9
   a16z adds revenue ranking to Top 100 Gen AI Apps; half of top earners miss usage lists

   a16z published the 7th edition of its Top 100 Gen AI Apps list, adding for the first time a Top 50 consumer AI ranking by monthly revenue; the usage-based Web and App lists added only 11 new products, the smallest change in three years. Revenue figures come from YipitData, which tracks card and receipt data from over 12 million US users, ranked by personal card payments to AI products in August 2026, with mainly NSFW-oriented products excluded. Of the 50 revenue leaders, 29 do not appear on the usage lists, and only ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Suno, Photoroom, Canva and Notion appear on all three; the piece profiles lesser-known earners including AI 3D platform Meshy, workflow tool n8n and Nous Research's open-source personal agent Hermes.

   36氪 人工智能 · 🔥 0
3. Oct 8
   Step 5 Preview free for a week on OpenCode, Cline, Kilo and Nous Portal

   StepFun said its flagship model Step 5 Preview is free for one week in OpenCode, Cline, Kilo and Nous Research's Nous Portal for agentic and professional work. Material relayed by StepFun describes the model as a 600B-total, 27B-active MoE with a 1M-token context window and vision, and the OpenCode post also lists zero data retention. Nous Research is quoted as saying Step 5 Preview scored 33.89 on the Hermes Index, matching GPT-6 Luna, while Cline says it scores ahead of Kimi K3 and GLM-5.3 on DeepSWE; these benchmark comparisons are partner or vendor claims that have not been independently verified.

   阶跃星辰 StepFun · 🔥 0
4. Oct 8
   Asus ProArt P14 and P16 launch with Nvidia RTX Spark and Hermes agents

   Asus announced the ProArt P14 and ProArt P16 laptops, both built around Nvidia's RTX Spark superchip, which Asus says offers up to 1 PFLOP of FP4 AI compute and 128GB of unified memory for on-device model inference and AI agent workflows. Both machines also integrate Nous Research's open-source Hermes platform, which can chain desktop apps, terminals and local files for multi-step tasks with long-term memory and sandboxed environments. Pre-orders are open now, with availability on October 16 at 8pm; starting prices are NT$169,999 (P14) and NT$179,999 (P16), while the 128GB pre-order configurations cost NT$249,999 and NT$269,999. Asus also teased the ProArt GR1X Agent Computer, a desktop on-device AI hub, for launch in Taiwan this month.

   科技新报 · 🔥 0
5. Oct 7
   Nous Research raises $90M at $1.5B valuation, launches Hermes for Businesses

   Nous Research, maker of the open-source Hermes agent, raised a $90 million Series B led by Robot Ventures, with participation from Nvidia, Samsung, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Y Combinator and 1789 Capital (The Next Web also lists Microsoft's M12). TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal put the valuation at $1.5 billion, while Techmeme's headline says $1.2 billion; the company did not disclose a valuation itself. The money will fund "Hermes for Businesses," aimed at letting companies pick models by price and goal, keep AI usage private and own their company knowledge. Nous says Hermes has been cloned more than 24 million times since its February MIT-licensed release and drives roughly 2.5% of global AI token usage — its own estimate — while the Journal reported about $36 million in annualized revenue by mid-September and an expectation of passing $100 million by year-end.

   Techmeme · 🔥 0

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