NVIDIA, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, and more than 20 other companies released a letter on Friday urging policymakers to avoid "premature restrictions" on open-weight AI models that would "stifle competition or drive innovation overseas"1.
The letter arrives amid a heated debate over whether the U.S. should restrict access to Chinese open-weight models that are gaining ground against leading American offerings. Open-weight AI models are available for users to download, modify, and run on their own infrastructure.
OpenAI and Anthropic, which primarily develop proprietary, closed models, did not sign the letter. Both companies are gearing up for potentially massive IPOs, with each valued at nearly $1 trillion. Anthropic confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, and OpenAI filed its own prospectus days later.
The letter argued that U.S. AI leadership "will be judged by whether the United States builds a strong, open ecosystem that diffuses into every sector". The signatories said sweeping restrictions on techniques important to AI innovation should be avoided, and that concerns about unlawful distillation should be addressed through "targeted legal and commercial frameworks".
The debate has been sharpened by the release of Kimi K3, a model from Chinese startup Moonshot AI that outperforms cutting-edge American offerings across some industry benchmarks. White House advisor Michael Kratsios said Moonshot AI developed Kimi K3 by distilling Anthropic's technology. Kratsios warned that "large-scale, covert industrial distillation aimed at stealing proprietary U.S. technology is unacceptable," while also stating that legitimate AI distillation plays a vital role in the open innovation ecosystem.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would look into whether Chinese companies were stealing American intellectual property, adding that the government has the ability to sanction Chinese companies because of this theft.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman said he has not been involved in conversations with the Trump administration about potentially banning Chinese open-weight models in the U.S., and said OpenAI "believes in broad access".
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella each shared the letter on their personal social media accounts. Elon Musk amplified the letter on social media and said it had his "full support," though SpaceX did not officially sign.
ANALYSIS The letter draws a clear fault line in the AI industry: companies with significant open-weight model strategies — NVIDIA as a compute provider, Meta as a model releaser — are aligned against restrictions, while the two highest-valued closed-model developers, OpenAI and Anthropic, stayed off the signatory list as both prepare for public offerings.