Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI urge Congress not to restrict open-weight AI

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang used his first-ever post on X to draw attention to a letter signed by more than two dozen technology companies and organizations urging US lawmakers not to restrict open-weight AI models. The signatories — including Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Mistral, Palantir, Dell, Mozilla, and the Linux Foundation — argue that open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation, and enable national sovereignty over AI infrastructure.

"AI will transform every industry, power every company, and be built by every country," Huang wrote. "Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty."

The timing is not a coincidence

The letter arrives as top Trump administration officials have signaled they may take action against Moonshot AI, the Chinese lab behind Kimi K3, currently regarded as the world's most capable open-weight AI model. The signatories frame the stakes explicitly: "Our AI leadership will be judged not by one frontier AI model, but by whether the United States builds a strong, open ecosystem that diffuses into every sector."

The letter does not name Moonshot directly, but its authors draw a historical parallel to how open-source software transformed computing in the 1980s: "Open source did more than lower the cost of software; it created a shared foundation of knowledge on which generations of American engineers and entrepreneurs built their institutional sovereignty."

Who signed, and who didn't — at first

When the letter was first published, OpenAI and Anthropic — widely regarded as the two leading frontier AI labs — were notably absent. OpenAI added its name by Friday evening. CEO Sam Altman wrote on X that he was "glad to see" the support for open-weight models: "i want the US to win in AI both in open source and proprietary models."

Google has not formally signed the letter, though CEO Sundar Pichai voiced support on X the following day: "Very happy to support this on behalf of Google." Elon Musk also endorsed the message, though SpaceXAI is not listed among the signatories. That leaves Anthropic as the only major US frontier AI lab yet to back the letter.

Why open-weight models matter to the signatories' business

The competitive backdrop is direct: China has dominated open-weight AI model development despite the United States' historical leadership in open-source software. Nvidia's Nemotron is among the largest US-built open-weight models, but its performance trails rivals like Kimi K3. Companies whose business depends on customers running models on their own infrastructure — chipmakers, cloud providers, and enterprise software vendors among the signatories — have a direct commercial interest in an open ecosystem that isn't restricted by government action aimed at foreign competitors.

What comes next

The letter does not specify what legislative or regulatory action it is responding to, but its timing signals an attempt to shape the policy debate before the administration moves on tools available to restrict foreign AI models — such as export controls, procurement bans, or app store restrictions similar to those applied to TikTok. Whether the letter changes the administration's calculus on Moonshot AI and other Chinese open-weight developers remains to be seen, as first reported by Business Insider.