NVIDIA is giving away powerful AI for free: a strategy that generates billions
On June 4, 2026, NVIDIA made an unexpected yet strategically sound move: it released its largest artificial intelligence model, Nemotron 3 Ultra, as open source. This is not just another release. It signals a paradigm shift in the AI market.
Unlike closed giants such as ChatGPT or Claude, Nemotron 3 Ultra is available for download, fine-tuning, and deployment on your own infrastructure under a free license. The model, boasting approximately 550 billion parameters, activates only 55 billion for each token processed. This is achieved through a unique hybrid architecture combining Mamba-2 layers, Attention mechanisms, and Latent Mixture of Experts (Latent MoE).
Mamba-2 layers process long texts quickly and efficiently—their computational costs grow linearly, not exponentially. Attention mechanisms, in turn, precisely retain large volumes of context in memory. Meanwhile, Latent MoE compresses data before passing it to "experts," allowing each to work narrowly and accurately. The result: a context window of 1 million tokens, speeds exceeding 300 tokens per second, and, according to analysts, 5-6 times higher throughput with 30% lower task costs compared to alternatives.
Ecosystem Strategy: A Free Model as a Sales Magnet
The main value of the release is not the model itself, but the ecosystem NVIDIA is building around its hardware. The logic is simple: running Nemotron 3 Ultra is most efficient on NVIDIA graphics cards, fine-tuning it uses its software tools, and deploying it relies on its software. Openness here is not charity, but a powerful marketing tool that drives developers back to purchasing hardware.
With a company valuation exceeding $5 trillion, the costs of training the model (hundreds of millions) are a nearly negligible expense. Graphics card sales more than cover the research. Therefore, NVIDIA can give away the model for free and still earn more than closed competitors charging for access.
The political context adds further weight to the release. An open American model can be inspected, modified, and run on your own servers—making it attractive for countries building independent national AI, from Europe to Southeast Asia. It cannot be remotely disabled, which is especially valuable amid recent restrictions surrounding closed models.
Not the Smartest, but the Most Practical
Despite its merits, Nemotron 3 Ultra is not the smartest model on the market. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, it scored 48 points—the best result among open US models, but trailing leaders like Kimi K2.6 (54 points) and DeepSeek. Open models generally lag behind closed ones by three to seven months.
However, this gap matters less and less if an open model is sufficient for real-world tasks. A bank deploying Nemotron 3 Ultra to process loans on its own servers does not need flagship-level intelligence—it needs a model that can be fine-tuned on private data, kept within a secure perimeter, and not share confidential information with outsiders.
Analytical Conclusion: NVIDIA's bet on efficiency rather than test records may prove more far-sighted than it appears. With mass AI adoption, the cost of running a model takes center stage. One that is nearly as smart but five times cheaper wins in real-world deployment. The open ecosystem will only strengthen: NVIDIA has the resources, motivation, and distribution channels to release increasingly powerful open models faster than any other company.