Huang Defends Chinese Open-Source AI | Says US Firms 'Absolutely' Should Use Them, Directly Contradicts Bessent
TL;DR
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended Chinese open-source AI models — calling them 'world class' — and pushed back against Bessent's sanctions threat.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, in an Axios exclusive, defended Chinese open-source AI models by name — Kimi K3, DeepSeek, Alibaba, Tencent, MiniMax, Baidu. He called them 'world class' and said US companies 'absolutely' should be allowed to use them. The scenario of Chinese firms crowding US companies out of AI? 'Zero probability.'
He dismantled the restriction case point by point. 'Backdoor' fear: models run locally in a company's sandbox — no phoning home to Beijing. 'Security': open weights let researchers find and patch flaws faster than closed audits ever could. His path: prosecute specific privacy or contract breaches, don't ban the models wholesale.
Business logic is direct: cheaper, more accessible AI expands the user base, which raises demand for Nvidia's chips, data centers, and compute. This comes less than 48 hours after Treasury Secretary Bessent threatened to scrutinize Chinese open-source AI as IP theft and sanction accordingly. Two power centers, publicly split.
via Axios / CryptoBriefing
He dismantled the restriction case point by point. 'Backdoor' fear: models run locally in a company's sandbox — no phoning home to Beijing. 'Security': open weights let researchers find and patch flaws faster than closed audits ever could. His path: prosecute specific privacy or contract breaches, don't ban the models wholesale.
Business logic is direct: cheaper, more accessible AI expands the user base, which raises demand for Nvidia's chips, data centers, and compute. This comes less than 48 hours after Treasury Secretary Bessent threatened to scrutinize Chinese open-source AI as IP theft and sanction accordingly. Two power centers, publicly split.
via Axios / CryptoBriefing
