Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta warn against 'premature restrictions' of open-weight models

Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir and more than 20 other companies released a letter Friday urging policymakers to avoid "premature restrictions" on open-weight artificial intelligence models that would "stifle competition or drive innovation overseas." Open-weight AI models are available for users to download, modify and run on their own infrastructure, and they have been the subject of fierce debate within the tech sector in recent weeks. Chinese open-weight models are gaining steam against leading offerings from American companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, which primarily develop proprietary, closed models. Officials and executives have been weighing whether or not to restrict access to Chinese models in the U.S. Moonshot AI, a Chinese startup, amplified concerns earlier this month after releasing a model called Kimi K3 that outperforms cutting-edge American offerings across some industry benchmarks. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday that the Trump administration would look into whether Chinese companies were stealing American intellectual property, and stated that the government has "the ability to sanction them because of this theft." But in the letter on Friday, the group of U.S. tech companies cautioned against any rash actions. They wrote that open-weight models strengthen competition and ensure that the benefits of the technology are "broadly shared rather than concentrated in a few hands." "Relying solely on closed models is not inherently safe: they can be breached, misused, or fail in ways that outsiders cannot detect," the letter said. "And concentrating advanced AI capabilities behind a small number of closed models compounds that risk." Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella both shared the letter on their personal social media accounts. Elon Musk, who runs an AI business under his rocket company SpaceX, also applified the letter on social media, writing that it has his "full support" in a post on X. SpaceX did not officially sign the letter. Moonshot AI accessed Nvidia's chips despite Chinese export ban, White House official says Alphabet and Tesla test Wall Street's patience as AI spending overshadows growth Alphabet earnings takeaways: Q2 revenue beats, GOOGL stock sinks on 2026 capex hike Tesla misses on earnings, as free cash flow turns negative and margins slide OpenAI and Anthropic did not sign the letter. Both companies, which are each valued at nearly $1 trillion, are gearing up for potentially massive initial public offerings that could land as soon as this year. Anthropic confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, and OpenAI followed suit days later. Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president, said Thursday that the company believes in broad access, and that he has not been involved in any conversations with the Trump administration about potentially banning Chinese open-weight models in the U.S. "I think that, that fundamentally, AI and AI usage is something that is actually very important to democratize," Brockman told reporters during a briefing in New York City. "And so, for me, at a sort of deep l...