Nvidia to invest $26 billion in developing open AI models

Nvidia Crosses the Rubicon: the world's largest manufacturer of artificial intelligence chips has announced its intention to invest $26 billion in developing its own AI models with open weights. This decision, documented in officially filed documents, has the potential to fundamentally rewrite the logic of competition in the artificial intelligence market and position the company far beyond its traditional role as a supplier of computing infrastructure.

Just a few years ago, Nvidia's position seemed absolutely invulnerable and, at the same time, neutral: the company was making money from all participants in the AI race, selling graphics processors to both OpenAI and its competitors. This was a classic "selling shovels during a gold rush" strategy — while everyone was searching for gold, Nvidia skimmed profits from the search process itself. The H100 and A100 chip series became the de facto standard for training large language models, and the company's market capitalization soared to the heavens.

However, this very success bred a new vulnerability: dependence on the hardware business at a time when competitors — from Google with its TPU to AMD and a host of startups — are relentlessly attacking Nvidia's monopoly in the AI accelerator market.

The decision to invest $26 billion in open models should be viewed in precisely this context. Open weights are not simply a technological choice; they are a political and economic statement. Models with open weights, like those Meta releases through its Llama project or developments by Chinese company DeepSeek, create entire ecosystems of developers who adapt, fine-tune, and embed them into their own products. If Nvidia manages to secure a significant position in this ecosystem, it will cease to be merely a hardware supplier and transform into an architect of the software environment on which the industry runs. This is a qualitatively different level of influence and, importantly, a qualitatively different source of revenue.

The scale of the announced investments speaks for itself. Twenty-six billion dollars is a sum comparable to the annual research and development budget of the world's largest technology corporations. For comparison: these are the figures that allow us to speak of serious ambitions rather than pilot experiments. At the same time, the bet on openness appears tactically sound: unlike the proprietary models of OpenAI or Anthropic, Nvidia's open developments will be able to attract the academic community, independent developers, and corporate customers who fundamentally avoid dependence on closed platforms. This dramatically expands the potential audience and accelerates technology adoption.

The consequences of this move for the market could be quite serious. OpenAI and Anthropic have thus far operated in a world where Nvidia was a partner, not a competitor. Now the situation is changing: the largest supplier of computing power is becoming a player in the model space itself.

This creates a potential conflict of interest that will inevitably affect business relationships. Will companies competing with Nvidia at the model level continue to trust it as a chip supplier? This question is already hanging in the air in Silicon Valley.

Moreover, Nvidia's entry into the open model segment intensifies pressure on DeepSeek and other open initiatives: they now face a player with virtually unlimited resources and the deepest expertise in hardware optimization.

Strategically, Nvidia is playing a classic game of vertical integration, only applied to the era of AI. By controlling both hardware and models, the company gains the ability to optimize the entire stack — from silicon to application — in a way that none of its current competitors can match. Open models trained and optimized specifically for Nvidia chips will perform better on them, creating a powerful incentive for developers to remain within the company's ecosystem. This is not simply business diversification — it is an attempt to become indispensable at all levels of the technology stack simultaneously.

The artificial intelligence industry is entering a new phase where the lines between hardware manufacturers, model developers, and platform players are being erased altogether. Nvidia's decision to invest $26 billion in open AI models is not simply a corporate announcement; it is a signal that the rules of the game are changing right now. A company that yesterday was a neutral arbiter of the technological race is today stepping up to the starting line as one of the main participants in the race.