Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue has addressed the recent departure of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, describing the transition as a deeply disappointing development for the technology sector. Nvidia initially announced its plans to acquire the prominent open-source AI platform in September for $12.9 billion. This monumental transaction represents the second-largest corporate acquisition in Nvidia's history, sitting directly behind the purchase of chipmaker Groq's assets for $20 billion in December 2025. Taking to the social media platform X, Delangue expressed candid frustration regarding the situation while moving to reassure the broader developer community that the company's mission remains unchanged.
Addressing his followers online, Delangue emphasized that the leadership shift was entirely unwelcome while firmly committing to the company's core principles. He stated that the entire situation was unfortunate, but explicitly promised that the organization would accelerate its efforts to champion open-source artificial intelligence. The sudden exit of Huang has generated notable anxiety among open-source advocates, who have long regarded the former executive as a crucial institutional ally for open-weight models within the major technology landscape. Delangue's public statements were clearly intended to calm these growing industry fears.
Key takeaways
- Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue described Jensen Huang's departure as a genuinely sad day.
- Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion in a deal announced in September.
- The U.S. Department of Justice initiated inquiries in October regarding potential market competition impacts.
- Jensen Huang previously signed a July policy letter defending open-weight models against government over-regulation.
Nvidia's Advocacy for Open-Weight Models
Under Huang's tenure, Nvidia established a remarkably visible public stance supporting accessible, open-weight models that users can download, inspect, modify, and run independently on their own infrastructure. In July, Huang published an influential AI policy letter as his first-ever post on X, signed by 25 major corporate entities, including Microsoft, Meta, Hugging Face, IBM, and Palantir. The joint statement strongly urged the U.S. government against over-restricting open-weight architectures, arguing that accessible models bolster cybersecurity, foster domestic innovation, and prevent restrictive vendor lock-in. Expanding on this strategy, Nvidia committed $6 billion to coding startup Poolside in August to help build an open AI ecosystem competing against Chinese firms, and recently unveiled large Nemotron open-weight models for enterprise agents and PCs.
Antitrust Scrutiny and Deal Status
Despite the executive shift, the $12.9 billion acquisition agreement remains officially scheduled to close during the first half of 2027. Antitrust scrutiny has already commenced, with the U.S. Department of Justice initiating inquiries in October to evaluate how the integration will influence broader market competition. Although Nvidia has previously pledged that the platform will preserve open support, the merger ultimately grants the hardware giant control over a massive distribution channel for modern machine learning models. Representatives for Hugging Face did not return requests for comment regarding the current status of the agreement or whether discussions have occurred with Nvidia interim CEO Colette Kress.
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