Nvidia, Microsoft and other tech giants back open-source AI models

In recent months, Silicon Valley business leaders have bristled at the cost of closed source models. The CEOs of Microsoft and defense contractor Palantir Technologies have publicly argued that open-source models their customers can run inside their own data centers will help control AI costs.

Tech leaders have also chafed at controls that OpenAI and Anthropic build into their models. Hugging Face, the AI coding collaboration site that was hacked by a rogue OpenAI model, this week said that it had to use a Chinese open-source model to defend against the attack because closed-source models have restrictions on use for cybersecurity work.

At the same time, U.S. lawmakers alarmed by the rogue OpenAI cyberattack proposed legislation that would require a "kill switch" for AI models, and President Donald Trump's administration is weighing sanctions on Chinese open-source model makers over alleged theft of U.S. closed-source technology.

The letter from Nvidia and other companies acknowledged the concerns about technology theft but argued they should be addressed "through targeted legal and commercial frameworks rather than sweeping restrictions."