Hugging Face CEO vows to keep fighting for open-source AI after Jensen Huang’s exit

Summary

• Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue described Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's departure as a "really sad day" & pledged to fight harder for open-source AI.
• Nvidia announced a $12.9 billion plan in September to acquire Hugging Face, marking the company's second-largest acquisition behind Groq's $20 billion deal in December 2025.
• The U.S. Department of Justice began inquiries in October regarding the deal's potential impact on AI market competition.
• Nvidia pledged to preserve open support for Hugging Face while acknowledging the acquisition would allow control over a major AI model distribution channel.
• The Hugging Face acquisition remains scheduled to close in the first half of 2027.
• Huang previously signed a July policy letter with 25 companies urging the U.S. government against over-restricting open-weight AI models.
• The policy letter stated that open-weight models make AI more accessible, adaptable, & widely available.
• Huang asserted that open models strengthen safety, cybersecurity, innovation, & enable sovereignty.
• Nvidia announced a $6 billion deal in August with coding startup Poolside to build an open AI ecosystem in the U.S.
• Nvidia expanded its Nemotron family of open-weight models with a 120-billion-parameter model for agents & two new lightweight Bolt models for PCs.
• Huang promoted open-source AI during his January keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.