Paradigm leads a $50 million Series A funding round for decentralized AI project Nous Research.
Background: Founded in 2023, Nous Research is an open-source AI lab dedicated to advancing foundational AI models through a decentralized, community-driven approach. It leverages blockchain infrastructure, primarily Solana, to coordinate global contributors, incentivize the sharing of idle computing resources, and ensure transparency in the training process.
Funding Details: This round was almost entirely financed by Paradigm, bringing the valuation of Nous Research's yet-to-be-issued tokens to $1 billion. Previously, Nous Research completed a seed round of approximately $20 million, with investors including Distributed Global, OSS Capital, Delphi Ventures, among others.
Project Progress: Nous Research's flagship language model, Hermes 3, has been downloaded over 50 million times and supports multiple platforms. Its Psyche network testnet has been launched, aiming to achieve decentralized machine learning by connecting diverse GPU hardware, serving as an alternative to existing closed and costly cloud AI systems.
Future Plans: Nous Research intends to use the new funds to expand research and development, build the foundational computing infrastructure for the Psyche network, conduct strategic hiring, and accelerate the development of new AI models.
Special Note: This article contains information related to SoSoValue.