Observations of ferromagnetism at room temperature in semiconductor nanoparticles would make them suitable candidates in spintronics devices. It has been found that the pure and copper doped CdSe nanoparticles (similar to 2 nm) exhibit ferromagnetism at room temperature. Magnetization studies revealed a well-defined hysteresis loop with saturation magnetization value of 2.6 memu/gm and coercivity value of 198 Oe for the pure CdSe nanoparticles at room temperature. The saturation magnetization value was found to increase at lower doping concentration of copper and then decrease consistently with increase in the concentration. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.