Delangue vows Hugging Face will keep backing open-source AI

“This whole thing sucks, and I wish none of it had happened,” Delangue wrote on X. “But I want to make one thing clear: we’ll keep fighting for open-source AI, harder than ever. This is too important to slow down now.” The post, dated November 12, 2026, offered reassurance to open-source advocates concerned about how Nvidia might approach the field without Huang at its helm.

Huang was known as a vocal supporter of open-source AI and open-weight models. Nvidia announced its plan to buy Hugging Face in September for $12.9 billion, which would make it the company’s second-largest acquisition, behind its $20 billion purchase of Groq’s assets in December 2025. Reuters reported in October that the U.S. Department of Justice had begun asking how the deal could affect competition in the AI market. Nvidia has pledged to preserve Hugging Face’s open support, though the acquisition would give the chipmaker control of a major channel for distributing AI models.

The transaction is still scheduled to close in the first half of 2027. Requests for comment on its status and on whether Hugging Face had spoken with Nvidia interim CEO Collette Kress went unanswered.

Huang’s advocacy has extended beyond the acquisition. In July, his first post on X shared an AI policy letter signed by 25 companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Hugging Face, IBM and Palantir. The signatories urged the U.S. government not to over-restrict open-weight models, describing models that people can download, inspect, modify and run on their own infrastructure as important to a more accessible and adaptable AI ecosystem. Huang said open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, foster innovation and give customers greater control.

Nvidia announced a $6 billion deal with coding startup Poolside in August to help build an open AI ecosystem in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported. Last month, the company added a 120-billion-parameter model for enterprise agents and two lightweight Bolt models for PCs to its Nemotron family. Huang also promoted open-source AI at his January keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.