Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's First X Post Backs 150-Firm Letter Urging U.S. to Preserve Open-Weight AI Models
Key Takeaways
- •Jensen Huang's first X post endorsed an open letter signed by approximately 150 companies, including Nvidia, Microsoft, Dell, and Palantir, advocating for continued access to open-weight AI models.
- •The Trump administration is considering restrictions on advanced Chinese open-source models after Beijing-based Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, which its developers claim matches top U.S. models at a lower price.
- •White House OSTP Director Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot AI of distilling Anthropic's model at industrial scale and obtaining servers with export-banned Nvidia GB300 chips through Thailand.
- •Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that companies found to have stolen U.S. intellectual property could face sanctions and Entity List designations, with the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security as the primary enforcement vehicle.
- •The Little Tech Association, representing nearly 200 startups, sent letters to administration officials arguing that cutting off access to foreign models would stifle competition and disproportionately benefit large incumbents like Anthropic.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang used his first post on X to publicly back an open letter urging Washington to keep open-weight AI models available. The letter, signed by approximately 150 companies, pushes back against the Trump administration's intentions to restrict open-source models that perform on par with U.S. models while being offered at lower prices.
Open-weight models — AI systems whose trained parameters are published for anyone to download, modify, and deploy — have become a flashpoint in the global AI race. Meta's Llama series is the most prominent U.S. example, while Chinese labs including Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, and Alibaba have released competing open models in recent months.
Huang, who leads Nvidia — the most valuable chipmaker in the AI boom — chose a policy argument for his July 24 debut on X (formerly Twitter). He shared a letter signed by Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), and Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR) explaining the importance of access to open-source models. Huang stated that these models accelerate innovation, strengthen safety and cybersecurity, and enable sovereignty. Nvidia's commercial stake is direct: open-weight models that developers run on their own infrastructure drive demand for the GPUs the company sells, whereas closed, API-only models concentrate compute in the hands of a few cloud providers.
The letter places Huang on the opposite side of Anthropic and some officials within the administration who advocate tighter limits on Chinese labs. Huang has separately referred to Chinese open-source systems as "excellent" and said American firms should be free to use them.
The letter frames the issue as one of competitiveness, referencing the open-source software movement of the 1980s. Microsoft, one of the signatories, made a similar case, arguing that U.S. leadership will not be measured by a single cutting-edge AI model, but by whether the country builds an open, strong ecosystem reaching every industry.
Venture capitalist Bill Gurley, who circulated the letter, echoed this position. "Open models are the competitive edge," Gurley wrote on X. "If the U.S. doesn't lead in open, it won't lead at all."
Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz said that preserving access to open-weight models is what keeps the benefits of AI from concentrating in a handful of companies.
The signatories acknowledge that released weights carry real risks, since they cannot be recalled once public. Their proposed solution is targeted safeguards for demonstrated harms rather than a broad prohibition.
Potential Restrictions on Chinese Open-Source Models
On July 20, Cryptopolitan reported that the Trump administration was considering placing restrictions on advanced Chinese open-source models after Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI launched Kimi K3, a system its developers said matched top U.S. models and is offered at a far lower price.
Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, accused Moonshot of building Kimi K3 by distilling Anthropic's Fable model at an industrial scale and of acquiring servers fitted with Nvidia's export-banned GB300 chips through Thailand.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said companies found to have stolen U.S. intellectual property could face sanctions and Entity List designations. "Open source is not open season on American IP," Bessent wrote on X. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, which administers the Entity List and AI chip export controls, would be the primary vehicle for any such measures.
Moonshot has not addressed the allegations.
Impact on Smaller Companies
The newly formed Little Tech Association, representing nearly 200 startups including Y Combinator and the encrypted email service Proton, sent letters on Wednesday to President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Kratsios.
The letters argue that shutting American developers off from foreign models would "stifle competition, entrench incumbents, and function as a tax on intelligence."
Suhail Doshi, founder of AI infrastructure startup Particle, said restricting open-source models would lead to the demise of hundreds of companies. "It's great for Anthropic. We're all going to have to spend money on Anthropic," he said.
Little Tech executive director Harry Godfrey urged policymakers to use "a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer."