FundingJul 9, 2026, 1:00 PM

Popular open source AI developer tool Ollama raises $65M, grows to nearly 9M users

30-second summary

Ollama, a popular open-source AI tool for running models locally, raised $65 million and now has nearly 9 million users. The platform has also gained significant traction on GitHub with over 176,000 stars.

TickrWire
Popular open source AI developer tool Ollama raises $65M, grows to nearly 9M users
Key takeaways
  • Ollama raised $65 million in a new funding round, valuing the open-source AI tooling platform at a higher tier.
  • The platform now has nearly 9 million users, up from previous milestones, indicating rapid adoption.
  • Ollama has over 176,000 stars and 17,000 forks on GitHub, reflecting strong community engagement.
  • The funding highlights investor interest in local AI inference tools amid privacy and cost concerns.
Full story

Ollama, an open-source platform designed to simplify the process of running AI models on personal computers, has raised $65 million in a new funding round. The company's user base has grown to nearly 9 million, reflecting its growing adoption among developers and enthusiasts. On GitHub, Ollama has amassed over 176,000 stars and nearly 17,000 forks, underscoring its popularity in the developer community.

The funding round signals strong investor confidence in tools that enable local AI inference, a trend driven by privacy concerns and the need for offline-capable solutions. Ollama's approach contrasts with cloud-based AI services, offering users greater control over their data and computational resources. The platform supports a wide range of AI models, making it a versatile choice for developers working on diverse projects.

The rapid growth in users and GitHub activity suggests that Ollama is filling a critical gap in the AI tooling ecosystem. As AI adoption accelerates, tools that simplify local deployment are becoming increasingly valuable, particularly for developers and small teams with limited cloud budgets.

Why this matters
Developers

Provides a powerful, open-source tool for running AI models locally, reducing reliance on cloud services.

Businesses

Offers a cost-effective and privacy-focused alternative for deploying AI models.

Investors

Signals growing confidence in local AI tooling as a viable market segment.

Everyone

Demonstrates the increasing demand for accessible, offline-capable AI solutions.

Glossary
GitHub stars
A metric on GitHub representing the number of users who have bookmarked or shown interest in a repository.
Local AI inference
Running AI models on local hardware rather than relying on cloud-based services.
Sources ยท 1
Read next
More stories
Meta says its new AI model is ready to compete on coding

Meta says its new AI model is ready to compete on coding

After reentering the AI race with its first in-house Muse Spark model in April, Meta is now opening up the doors to developers with a new model that can plug into AI coding software with the new Meta Model API. Meta says that Muse Spark 1.1 is a "step-change" from the first generation, with improvements based on feedback from developers. The company says it's capable of more advanced coding, including detection and fixing of complex bugs; better supports end-to-end agentic workflows across a range of apps, including multi-agent systems; and has native multimodal perception across images, video

25m ago
TickrWire
AI Research

SU announces launch of artificial intelligence portfolio - Eagle News Online

Stanford University has launched a new artificial intelligence portfolio featuring several projects aimed at advancing AI research and applications.

38m ago
TickrWire
AI Research

Natural traces in forensic investigations: Integrating biological trace analysis and artificial intelligence in forensic investigations - Open Access Government

A new open-access paper explores how AI enhances forensic investigations by analyzing biological traces, offering a faster and more accurate approach to crime scene evidence.

48m ago
TickrWire
AI Research

UN digital tech agency launches initiative to improve trust in AI agents - Reuters

The UN digital tech agency has launched an initiative to improve trust in AI agents. This move is part of a broader effort to ensure that AI systems are transparent and accountable.

55m ago
Loop Engineering for Hierarchical Retrieval: Reading a Long Document by Its Table of ContentsAI Research

Loop Engineering for Hierarchical Retrieval: Reading a Long Document by Its Table of Contents

Researchers propose a hierarchical retrieval method that uses a document's table of contents to guide AI reading, reducing token usage and improving answer precision.

55m ago
OpenAI finds roughly 30 percent of popular AI coding test is brokenAI Research

OpenAI finds roughly 30 percent of popular AI coding test is broken

OpenAI reviewed the SWE-Bench Pro benchmark and found about 30% of its tasks are broken, prompting the company to withdraw its endorsement.

1h ago
TickrWireAI News Intelligence

We aggregate, verify, summarise and explain the latest artificial intelligence news from open, legal sources.

Daily AI digest

Top AI stories, summarised, in your inbox each morning.

ยฉ 2026 TickrWire. Summaries and analysis are AI-generated and may contain errors.