Research area
Open-weight AI labs
Labs whose route to market is open weights and open training stacks. We track 11 labs in this area, which have raised $5.6B in disclosed rounds between them; the most valuable is DeepSeek, at $52B.
11labs
$5.6Bdisclosed raised
$32Breported valuations
| Lab | Topic | Location | Founders from | Founded | Last round | Valuation | Raised | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reflection AIAmerican open-weight frontier models as a sovereign alternative to closed labs and Chinese…site · x · in | Open frontier models | New York, US | ex-Google DeepMind | 2024 | Series C $2.5BApr 1, 2026 · Nvidia | $25B | $4.63B | Open model |
| Applied ComputeReinforcement learning as a service: a cheaper, more open alternative for enterprises; ~$5…site | Open frontier models | San Francisco, US | ex-OpenAI | 2025 | Series C $350MSep 1, 2026 | $3.25B | $450M | Product |
| Nous ResearchOpen-source Hermes models and decentralised training (Psyche).site · x · in | Open frontier models | New York, US | · | 2023 | Series B $90MOct 7, 2026 | $1.5B | $90M | Open model |
| Essential AIOpen platform and Rnj-1 models from two Transformer authors; the technical team was acqui-…site | Open frontier models | San Francisco, US | ex-Google DeepMind | 2023 | Series B $175MAug 15, 2025 | $1B | $231.5M | Acquired |
| Prime IntellectThe open superintelligence stack: decentralised training, INTELLECT open models and an RL …site · x | Open frontier models | San Francisco, US | · | 2024 | Series A $130MJul 8, 2026 · Radical Ventures | $1B | $145M | Open model |
| DeepSeekOpen-weight frontier models trained at low cost; the founder has declared an AGI goal and …site · x | Open frontier models | Hangzhou, CN | ex-High-Flyer | 2023 | · | $52Best. | · | Open model |
| Mistral AIEurope's frontier lab: open-weight models, agents and on-device; the sovereign benchmark t…site · in | Open frontier models | Paris, FR | ex-Google DeepMind, ex-Meta | 2023 | · | $14Best. | · | Product |
| StepFunMultimodal open-weight Step models; filing in Hong Kong.x | Open frontier models | Shanghai, CN | ex-Microsoft, ex-ByteDance | 2023 | · | $10Best. | · | Open model |
| ZyphraSmall open-weight models (Zamba, ZAYA1) and state-space agent architectures with long-term…site · in | Open frontier models | San Francisco, US | ex-Conjecture | 2021 | · | $5Best. | · | Open model |
| Deep CogitoOpen-weight hybrid reasoning models built by iterated distillation and amplification; post…site · in | Open frontier models | San Francisco, US | ex-Google DeepMind | 2024 | Series A $43MAug 26, 2026 · TQ Ventures | · | $56M | Open model |
| OumiAn open platform for building fully owned foundation models; a public-benefit company.site | Open frontier models | Bellevue, US | ex-Google DeepMind | 2024 | · | · | · | Open model |
News
- Oct 7, 2026
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Oct 7, 2026
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Oct 7, 2026
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Oct 7, 2026
+9 more coverage
- TechCrunch Nous Research confirms it hit $1.5B valuation, launches AI agents for business users
- SiliconANGLE Nvidia, Samsung back $90M round for AI agent startup Nous Research
- WSJ Maker of Open-Source AI Assistant Hermes Secures $90 Million
- The Next Web Nous Research raises $90M to take its Hermes AI agent to businesses
- https://tech-insider.org/ Nous Research Raises $90M at $1.5B for AI Agents [2026]
- AI Insider Nous Research Raises $90M Series B at $1.5B Valuation to Bring Hermes AI Agents to Enterp…
- Yahoo Finance Nous Research $90M Raise: NVIDIA’s Dual Bet Reveals the Compute Landlord Strategy
- The SaaS News Nous Research Raises $90M Series B
- Tech Funding News Nous Research raises $90M at a reported $1.5B valuation to take its open-source agent to …
- Oct 6, 2026
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Oct 6, 2026
+6 more coverage
- POLITICO.eu German search engine ditches Mistral, bets on Chinese open-source AI
- The Register European AI flag bearer Mistral's new open weights model is 'Le Chonk'
- DW.com Mistral: French AI firm announces Le Chonk, a new, private model
- Le Monde.fr Mistral AI unveils new AI model aimed at 'narrowing the gap' with top Chinese competitors
- Cybernews European search engine Ecosia drops Mistral and eyes Chinese AI models
- Tom's Hardware Mistral’s new Large 4 trails some Chinese open models in independent tests
- Oct 6, 2026
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Oct 4, 2026
+6 more coverage
- Semafor Reflection AI unveils an open-source Western answer to Chinese labs
- TechCrunch Reflection debuts Beam, an open-weight AI model to rival Chinese models at lower compute …
- SiliconANGLE Reflection AI debuts open-source Beam model with 501B parameters
- The Hill Reflection AI releases first open model to rival China
- MarkTechPost Reflection AI Introduces Beam: A 501B Open-Weight MoE Model With 23B Active Parameters fo…
- The New York Times A New Open-Weight Challenger to Anthropic, Reflection, Emerges
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Oct 4, 2026
- Oct 2, 2026
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Oct 2, 2026
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Sep 18, 2026