A sensational deal has shaken the tech and crypto worlds: Paradigm has invested $50 million in Nous Research, a decentralized AI startup quietly building an open-source training platform based on the Solana blockchain.
This Series A investment values Nous Research's token at $1 billion, marking it as one of the largest deals Paradigm has ever made at the intersection of AI and crypto.
A 'wild card' challenging OpenAI and DeepSeek.
#NousResearch although still in the experimental stage, has set very ambitious goals: to develop open-source models that can compete with giants like OpenAI and DeepSeek. The company currently has about 20 employees, but with new funding, they will quickly expand their computing and research capabilities.
What sets Nous apart is not only the development of open-source AI but also its truly decentralized approach: instead of using centralized data centers, it harnesses surplus GPU resources from around the world – from industrial to personal use – to train AI models.
Since 2022, Nous has attracted attention with its Hermes models, built on LLaMA and Mistral, along with groundbreaking research on memory augmentation for AI and distributed GPU training. Notably, the team has also collaborated with Diederik P. Kingma, a renowned researcher and co-founder of OpenAI.
Blockchain is not just for 'show'.
According to co-founder Karan Malhotra, the integration of blockchain is not merely a trend:
"We want to create the best AI for the world – transparent, fair, and community-owned."
Therefore, Nous integrates blockchain as a layer of security and encouragement. Instead of relying on 'voluntary contributions', Nous's distributed GPU training mechanism will operate through valuable transactions, leveraging the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) fraud-resistant capabilities characteristic of blockchain.
This system will run on Solana, thanks to its high performance and low transaction fees. This opens up possibilities for global-scale AI training without relying on centralized infrastructure while ensuring absolute transparency in recording contributions and distributing rewards.
The Nous team is currently considering whether to release a separate token or possibly use token $SOL as rewards for participants in the training network.
The convergence between crypto and AI is accelerating.
The Paradigm investment in Nous Research is not just a significant boost for this project but also signals the increasingly profound convergence between crypto and AI.
In the context of open-source AI receiving increasing attention from the global community, the emergence of platforms like Nous – where blockchain technology is effectively applied to AI operation models – could change how the tech industry builds and owns artificial intelligence in the future.
If successful, Nous will not only create a worthy competitor to OpenAI but also initiate an era of transparent, decentralized, and truly community-driven AI, in line with the spirit that both blockchain and open-source AI aim for.
Although the official launch date has not yet been announced, with strong financial resources and a clear vision, Nous Research is a name to watch in both the AI and blockchain landscapes in the near future.
