23 Daily — According to techcrunch.com, on November 12, 2026, Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue expressed sadness over the departure of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and pledged to continue advancing open-source artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Delangue described Huang’s exit as a "really sad day" and reaffirmed their commitment to fighting for open-source AI, emphasizing the critical importance of this mission.
Nvidia’s Planned Acquisition of Hugging Face Raises Concerns
In September 2026, Nvidia announced plans to acquire Hugging Face for
However, the U.S. Department of Justice began inquiries into how this deal might affect competition in the AI market. While Nvidia has pledged to maintain open-source support for Hugging Face, Huang’s departure has raised concerns about the company's future stance toward open-source AI.
Huang’s Advocacy and Nvidia’s Open Source Strategy
As Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang was a strong supporter of open-source AI and open-weight models. In July, he published an AI policy letter on social platform X, signed by 25 companies, including Microsoft, Meta, and Hugging Face. The letter urged the U.S. government not to overly restrict open-weight models, highlighting their role in making AI more accessible, adaptable, and widely available.
Additionally, in August 2026, Nvidia signed a $6 billion deal with coding startup Poolside to build an open AI ecosystem in the U.S. to better compete with Chinese companies like DeepSeek and Kimi K3. Nvidia also expanded its range of open-weight models, including a 120-billion-parameter Nemotron model for enterprise agents and two new lightweight Bolt models for PC use, underscoring its commitment to open-source development.
Editor's take: Sustaining Momentum in Open Source AI and Entrepreneurial Opportunities
Hugging Face’s CEO Delangue’s resolve to push forward with open-source AI despite Nvidia's leadership changes is crucial for maintaining community confidence. Huang’s past support helped foster a more open and competitive AI environment, although Nvidia’s future strategic direction warrants close attention.
For entrepreneurs, open-source AI remains a vibrant, promising market with opportunities in model development, application integration, and innovative services. Monitoring Hugging Face’s platform developments and partnerships, and experimenting with open models, are practical steps to validate market potential and technology readiness.