Crypto VC firm Paradigm has led a $50 million Series A funding round for Nous Research, valuing the decentralized AI startup at a $1 billion token valuation.
Background:
- Nous Research, a decentralized AI company building open-source models using Solana-based blockchain infrastructure, has secured $50 million in a Series A funding round led almost entirely by crypto venture firm Paradigm, according to a report confirmed by Fortune.
- The raise values the company at a $1 billion token valuation, marking one of the largest recent blockchain-AI crossover bets in the Web3 space.
- Nous, founded in 2022 by a group of open-source researchers who met on platforms like Discord, GitHub, and Twitter, aims to democratize AI by decentralizing the model training process using distributed computing power from global contributors.
- Previous backers include Delphi Digital, Distributed Global, and North Island Ventures, who collectively supported Nous’s earlier $20 million in seed funding.
Why should you pay attention?
- The round signals a major shift in crypto VC capital flowing into AI infrastructure, especially toward teams building decentralized, community-driven AI tools.
- Nous’s architecture relies on blockchain incentives to coordinate and validate distributed model training, offering an alternative to traditional, resource-heavy data center approaches.
- The team’s Hermes models and academic contributions on GPU training across non-colocated systems have already gained traction, being cited by AI heavyweights like Meta and DeepSeek.
- Paradigm’s backing highlights a growing strategic overlap between AI and crypto, especially as compute becomes a critical resource and blockchain offers new tools for coordination and anti-fraud protections.
Who said what?
- Karan Malhotra, co-founder of Nous:
“We want to create and serve the world’s best AI… This is really the only way we can make such a massive training run a democratic thing.”
Malhotra added:
“Crypto allows us to incentivize compute participants as contributors—not donors—while protecting the process through tools like Byzantine fault tolerance.”
- Paradigm, through its investment move:
Reaffirms its commitment to crypto while leaning further into the AI-crypto intersection, following earlier backlash over its broader AI ambitions after the FTX collapse.
- Fortune, citing a source close to the deal:
The $50 million Series A gives Nous a $1B token valuation, although exact tokenomics and economic structure have yet to be publicly disclosed.
Zooming out:
- Most blockchain-AI projects have struggled to gain meaningful traction, but Nous stands out by building research-first tools, open-sourcing models, and introducing incentivized decentralized training using idle GPUs.
- The company’s method could significantly lower AI development costs while inviting non-traditional participants into the training process.
- Paradigm’s bet may mark a turning point for decentralized AI, especially if Nous proves that performance, scale, and coordination are achievable without centralized infrastructure.
