Open models
Models anyone can download and run for free, and the businesses built around hosting and adapting them.
Who is making money
The companies earning or raising real money in this part of AI. Suppliers are marked: they sell to the builders rather than to end users.
Released the Llama open models, and now releases only some of its newer models as open weights.
Sales more than tripled (H1 2025)
Open profilereleases open models and sells hosted access
About $14B valuation (Sep 2025)
Open profilehosts and fine-tunes open models
About $1B annualised (Sacra estimate, Feb 2026)
Open profileLab that aims to release frontier open-weight models built in the US, backed by Nvidia.
$8B after a $2B round led by Nvidia in October 2025. Talks at $25B reported in 2026
Open profileChinese research lab that releases its strongest models as open weights, including V4 in April 2026.
About 475M yuan (about $70.7M) in the first seven months of 2026 (The Information, reported)
Open profilethe hub where open models live
Annualised revenue above $150M, from one unofficial report. The company does not disclose revenue
Open profileChinese lab that releases open models for chat, voice and video, now listed in Hong Kong.
About $30.5M in 2024 (filings, reported). About $53.4M in the nine months to September 2025 (reported)
Open profileChinese lab behind the Kimi open models and the Kimi chatbot.
Annual recurring revenue above $200M in April 2026 (reported)
Open profileChinese lab that releases GLM open models and sells enterprise services, now listed in Hong Kong.
About $44.4M in 2024 (filings, reported)
Open profileChinese tech group whose Qwen open models are among the most downloaded, and which runs Alibaba Cloud.
AI Cloud and Compute Services revenue $7.1B in the June 2026 quarter, up 45% (company)
Open profileMakes the open-source Hermes models and the Hermes Agent.
About $36M annualised by mid-September 2026 (WSJ, reported). Expects to pass $100M by end 2026
Open profileNon-profit research lab that releases fully open models, with their training data and code.
Open profileWhere the money flows
Labs give the models away for strategic reasons. Customers pay hosts and specialists to run and adapt them.
Led Mistral's Series D
orrick.comLed the lab's first big round
folio3.ai
The openings
Gaps still open in this area, from ones a small business could take to ones only giants can play.
- Small business Fine-tune and run open models for clients who need private or cheaper AI
- Startup money An open model built for one regulated industry, sold with support
- Giants only Releasing a competitive open frontier model
Open models make little direct money, and the best ones increasingly come from Chinese labs, which raises trust questions for buyers.
Sources: dealroom.co, dealroom.co
The map updates three times a week.
241 companies across 25 areas, 62 money flows and 89 openings so far. New research lands every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
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