“`html
In a significant move within the tech and blockchain sectors, venture capital powerhouse PARADIGM is injecting close to $50 million into NOUS RESEARCH, a decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) startup built on the Solana blockchain. This investment reportedly values the startup’s token at an impressive $1 billion.
According to sources, NOUS RESEARCH specializes in developing human-centric language models and AI research. The firm aims to compete with industry leaders like OPENAI and DEEPSEEK by leveraging decentralized AI training methods. Unlike traditional AI firms that rely on centralized data centers, NOUS RESEARCH plans to harness spare computing capacity from around the globe to train its open-source language models.
Co-founder KARAN MALHOTRA explained the innovative approach in an interview, stating, “We think of the incentive mechanism behind crypto to push people to actually utilize their idle compute [of] less as a donation but more as a transaction… We don’t want to get bogged down by the traditional view of how crypto operates when we’re a very serious research lab and an academic lab. This is really the only way in which we can make such a massive training run and such a democratic thing possible.”
While the company has chosen Solana as its foundational platform, it has yet to announce a timeline for the launch of its AI training product. Additionally, NOUS RESEARCH is still deliberating whether to reward participants with SOL tokens.
This investment underscores the growing intersection of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, highlighting the potential for decentralized systems to revolutionize AI development.
Sources: Fortune
“`