Hugging Face CEO Pledges to Fight On After Jensen Huang Exits Nvidia

Hugging Face's CEO, Clément Delangue, has vowed to keep fighting for open-source AI "harder than ever" after Nvidia announced Jensen Huang's departure on Thursday, calling it a "really sad day" for the movement Huang championed.

"This whole thing sucks, and I wish none of it had happened. It's a really sad day! 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. Let's go!"," Delangue wrote on X.

The post matters because it signals unease. Open-source advocates worry about what becomes of the movement now that its most powerful corporate backer is no longer running Nvidia.

Why does Huang's exit worry open-source advocates?

As Nvidia's CEO, Huang built a reputation as a strong advocate for open-source AI and open-weight models. The question hanging over the industry is straightforward: how will a Nvidia no longer under his leadership approach this space?

Delangue's reassurance implies the concern is real. He's telling developers and researchers that Hugging Face's mission survives the transition.

Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the leading distribution platform for open-source AI models, in September for $12.9 billion. That makes it the second-largest acquisition in Nvidia's history, trailing only the $20 billion purchase of chipmaker Groq's assets in December 2025.

What about regulatory scrutiny?

The deal drew attention in Washington quickly. The U.S. Department of Justice began making inquiries in October about how the acquisition would impact competition in the AI market, Reuters reported.

The concern is structural. Nvidia pledged the platform would preserve open support, but the acquisition also hands the company control of a major distribution channel for AI models — a chokepoint regulators rarely ignore.

The Hugging Face deal is still scheduled to close in the first half of 2027. Requests for comment on the deal's status, and on whether Hugging Face has spoken with Nvidia's interim CEO Collette Kress, went unanswered.

What was Huang's open-source track record?

Huang's advocacy stretched far beyond a single acquisition.

• In July, he published an AI policy letter as his first-ever post on X, signed by 25 companies including Microsoft, Meta, Hugging Face, IBM and Palantir. The letter urged the U.S. government not to over-restrict open-weight AI models.
• The letter argued that models "anyone can download, inspect, modify, and run on their own infrastructure" make AI "more accessible, adaptable, and widely available."
• Huang wrote that open-weight models expand access to the AI economy, strengthen competition, and give customers greater control by avoiding lock-in to a single provider. "Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty," his post stated.
• In August, Nvidia announced a $6 billion deal with coding startup Poolside to help build an open AI ecosystem in the U.S., aimed at competing against Chinese companies like DeepSeek and Kimi K3, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• Last month, Nvidia expanded its Nemotron family of open-weight models with a 120-billion-parameter model for enterprise agents, plus two new lightweight Bolt models that run on PCs.
• In his January keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Huang said open-source models have "really revolutionized artificial intelligence."

What happens next?

The immediate question is continuity. Nvidia's open-source commitments — the Poolside deal, the Nemotron roadmap, the Hugging Face pledge — all carry Huang's imprint. Kress, as interim CEO, has yet to state her position publicly.

For Delangue, the stance is unambiguous. Hugging Face will keep pushing open-source AI regardless of who runs its future owner, and the next test comes as the $12.9 billion deal moves toward its first-half 2027 close under DOJ scrutiny and new leadership.