Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue pledged to continue advocating for open-source AI following the departure of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Delangue expressed frustration regarding the transition on X, describing the situation as a "really sad day" and stating that the company will fight for open-source AI harder than ever.
Nvidia previously announced plans in September to acquire the open-source AI model platform for $12.9 billion. The transaction, which is scheduled to close in the first half of 2027, represents the second-largest acquisition in Nvidia's history, trailing the $20 billion acquisition of Groq's assets in December 2025. The deal has faced scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice, which began inquiring in October about the potential impact on competition within the AI market.
Huang was a prominent supporter of open-weight models, arguing that they strengthen safety, accelerate innovation, and prevent customers from being locked into a single provider. In July, Huang and 25 other companies, including Microsoft, Meta, and IBM, urged the U.S. government not to over-restrict models that can be downloaded, inspected, and modified on private infrastructure.
While Nvidia has pledged to preserve open support for the platform, the acquisition would grant the company control over a major distribution channel for AI models. Requests for comment on the status of the deal or discussions with Nvidia's interim CEO Colette Kress were not returned.
