American giant Nvidia is betting on open artificial intelligence models, having signed a strategic agreement with the AI startup Poolside. The deal is estimated at $6 billion, and its goal is to create a powerful LLM with open weights that can compete on equal footing with Chinese developments such as DeepSeek and Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI.
According to my data, the deal structure includes not only licensing payments but also personnel changes: Nvidia will offer jobs to more than a hundred Poolside employees and will additionally invest $1 billion in the startup. This is not just a financial transaction but a systemic step aimed at strengthening the U.S. position in the race for AI leadership.
Of particular interest is that the Poolside deal mirrors the scheme Nvidia already tested when acquiring chip developer Groq. At that time, the company paid $20 billion for licenses and integrated most of the key specialists and founders into its workforce. This approach demonstrates that Nvidia is not just buying technology but consolidating talent, which is critical amid a shortage of AI experts.
Strategically, this move is a direct challenge not only to Chinese competitors but also to American giants, including OpenAI and Anthropic. Models with open weights are significantly cheaper to operate and easier to customize, making them attractive to developers worldwide. Nvidia is clearly seeking to democratize access to AI, moving away from concentrating technology in the hands of a few closed ecosystems.
The context of the deal is amplified by political undertones. The U.S. administration has again revived discussions about possible restrictions on the use of Chinese open-weight models. However, 25 American companies, including Nvidia, Meta, and Microsoft, have opposed such measures, warning that bans would only shift the market toward closed developers and weaken the country's technological leadership. The release of Kimi K3, which the White House accused of distilling Anthropic's Fable model, only added fuel to these debates.
My expert assessment: Nvidia is acting with foresight by investing in open models. This is not only a way to bypass regulatory risks but also an attempt to create an alternative ecosystem where demand for its chips will grow organically. However, success depends on whether Poolside can actually create a model capable of surpassing Chinese competitors in quality and efficiency. Otherwise, $6 billion may turn out to be merely an expensive insurance policy against technological lag.